For the past few years, healthcare administrators and providers have been getting ready for the Affordable Care Act by re-examining and making changes to their current systems. They are preparing for an influx of newly insured patients, attempting to position themselves as providers of choice within their communities and working on developing health homes and accountable care organizations. The Blue Shield of California Foundation believes that integration and coordination of services across the safety net is critical to achieving a… Learn more

The Nadiv Program (Nadiv) is an innovative pilot made possible by a partnership between the Jim Joseph Foundation and the AVI CHAI Foundation and is operated by The Foundation for Jewish Camp. The collaborative Nadiv partnership created six new Jewish educator positions, Nadiv Educators, which are shared between Jewish summer camps and schools. In these memos, Informing Change documents and summarizes the story of Nadiv and offer key learnings from its development and early implementation. The first memo, The Nadiv Story,… Learn more

Jewish Student Connection (JSC) aims to serve as a catalyst for Jewish teens to take ownership of their Jewish future by creating in-school educational experiences in public and private high schools. JSC’s student-run clubs provide opportunities for teens to build community, learn about Jewish history and Israel, and gain access to the Jewish community outside their high school. In 2010, three national and regional funders engaged Informing Change to assess the programmatic and organizational growth of JSC in four regions:… Learn more

Over the past four years, the Center for Care Innovations (formerly the Community Clinics Initiative) has supported creative ways of promoting health in underserved communities through their Networking for Community Health program. CCI, through generous support from The California Endowment, offered grants and non-monetary supports to community clinics across California to build community networks and enhance the capacity of those working within the networks to improve community health. This report provides an overview of CCI’s Networking for Community Health program,… Learn more

The Blue Shield of California Foundation and the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco launched the Clinic Leadership Institute Emerging Leaders program to prepare emerging leaders to move into executive positions. But how do the learnings from a structured leadership program translate to the unpredictability and complexity of participants’ day-to-day work in health centers? In this report, Informing Change examines how program benefits spread from participants to their organizations through their customized leadership projects… Learn more

The Pipeline Project offers the 21st Century Fellows Program to managers of color working at LGBT human rights and advocacy organizations with the intention of retaining and advancing these fellows in the field. The year-long leadership program aims to: build fellows’ leadership skills through a Rockwood Leadership Institute curriculum, create lasting peer networks, facilitate fellows’ advancement into executive positions and support their work to build stronger organizations. The program is supported by the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, the… Learn more

The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce (the L.A. Chamber) is one of the nation’s oldest and most prominent regional business advocacy organizations. In June 2011, the L.A. Chamber received a grant from the Walmart Foundation to provide summer employment opportunities for underserved 16- to 21-year olds in Los Angeles. Through this grant, the L.A. Chamber partnered with civic and nonprofit organizations to offer summer work opportunities for 500 youth. The L.A. Chamber engaged Informing Change to evaluate its implementation… Learn more

The Blue Shield of California Foundation is partnering with the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco to design and implement the Clinic Leadership Institute Emerging Leaders program. This intensive, 18-month program prepares emerging leaders to move into executive positions within five to eight years in order to sustain a strong and vibrant community clinics field in California. Informing Change has conducted a mixed-method, longitudinal study focusing on the impacts of the program since its… Learn more

As part of the evaluation of the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI)’s Networking for Community Health (NCH) program, Informing Change is examining how community clinics strengthen their working relationships with both traditional and non-traditional partners to promote community health. This report focuses on a sub-set of NCH projects that focus on “getting to the roots” of health problems in their communities by identifying and addressing upstream causes of ill health and focusing on prevention. In this report we examine the NCH… Learn more

In 2008, the Community Clinic’s Initiative launched a $1.6 million effort, the Community Health Organizing Project, to support statewide and regional advocacy efforts around health care reform and budget issues. The Project provided funding to the California Primary Care Association (CPCA) and 15 regional clinic networks working to bring more diverse voices, particularly clinic staff and patients, into health-related discussions occurring in California. This brief describes the strategies that grantees undertook to engage more clinic staff and patients as health… Learn more

Shasta Community Health Center (SCHC) engaged with Informing Change to assess the effectiveness of its Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Scribe Model, which utilize scribes to enter medical information into EHRs during patient visits. This report looks at the impact of this demonstration project on clinician and patient satisfaction with the process, patient visit efficiency and flow, clinician productivity, fiscal impact on the clinic as well as particularly important scribe and clinician characteristics that contribute to the model’s success. Learn more

In 2006, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation began to support the After School Education and Safety Program (ASES)–funded expansion of after-school programs in California. The Foundation invested in the establishment of technical assistance (TA), workforce development, and leadership infrastructure to help build a sustainable system that provides better programmatic and financial support for California’s after-school programs. This report examines the ways in which the Foundation’s investments from 2007 through 2010 have contributed to the continuous improvement of the after-school… Learn more

As part of the evaluation of the Community Clinics Initiative (CCI)’s Networking for Community Health (NCH) program, Informing Change is examining how community clinics strengthen their working relationships with both traditional and non-traditional partners to promote community health. This brief focuses on a sub-set of NCH projects that are engaging youth to promote community health. The report describes how clinics can integrate youth into community health improvement efforts and profiles three projects to illustrate different of ways to engage youth.… Learn more

What does it really mean to treat evaluation study participants fairly, equitably and with the utmost respect? For foundation staff without deep research backgrounds, it is vital to understand whether evaluators are taking appropriate steps to protect the participants in their work. Does every study require an Institutional Review Board (IRB) process? When is the process not necessary? With generous support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Informing Change has developed Resource Documents and an accompanying Training Toolkit for… Learn more

What can a community college do to ensure that its students complete their degrees and move forward into productive and fulfilling careers? Across the nation, policymakers, educators, students and their families are concerned about the low percentage of enrolled community college students who persevere to complete either a two-year or a four-year college degree. Because community colleges have open access (i.e., all students are eligible to attend regardless of their academic achievement), developmental education is a large component of community… Learn more

As part of its efforts in building the field of Jewish service-learning, Repair the World commissioned Informing Change to conduct an exploratory study on the impact of short-term immersive Jewish service-learning (IJSL) on the organizations and communities that host these groups. The study included interviews with representatives of host community CBO/NGOs involved in IJSL projects in the US, Israel, Nicaragua, Ghana and Ukraine as well as an in-depth review of recent relevant research and writing about best practices in secular… Learn more

In 2008, The Blue Shield of California Foundation partnered with the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco to address leadership needs in the community clinics field. They launched the Clinic Leadership Institute (CLI), an 18-month leadership program designed to prepare next generation leaders to move into executive leadership positions. Over the past two years, Informing Change has conducted an ongoing evaluation of CLI and recently completed this brief describing the CLI program as well… Learn more

HIRE LA’s Youth, a division of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, supports youth employment by preparing applicants between the ages of 16–24 years to earn and retain entry-level employment. The multi-step preparation Work Readiness Certification (WRC) process includes resumé development, customer service skills training, workplace etiquette, application procedures and a mock interview with employer volunteers. Informing Change conducted a survey of 1,970 WRC recipients and non-recipients to assess the impact that a WRC certificate has on youth’s employment… Learn more

In 2008, The Community Clinics Initiative (CCI) launched their Networking for Community Health (NCH) grantmaking program. The program was designed to support California community clinics in strengthening their working relationships with both traditional and non-traditional partners. Over the past three years, CCI has supported clinics’ projects that work on a wide variety of issues, including improving access to nutritious food, engaging youth and coordinating health services, among others. This report examines the ways in which the NCH program has enhanced… Learn more

Social websites have rapidly grown into large, sophisticated networks that can span the globe.This brief provides a snapshot of one nonprofit online community—the Community Clinic Voice. The Community Clinics Initiative (CCI) supports the Voice to aid health care safety net professionals in building stronger, healthier communities. The brief explores the Voice model, including its structure, evolution, members and the benefits that they gain from utilizing the Voice. It also summarizes CCI’s approach to online community management and considerations for those… Learn more