At Vitalyst Health Foundation, we have never shied away from complex health challenges. From our inception almost 30 years ago as St. Luke’s Charitable Health Trust to our time as St. Luke’s Health Initiative and now as Vitalyst, we have always taken on challenges that impact the health of communities across Arizona.

This past year, we hope to clarify our work and show how our community partners helped us achieve our three goals:

• Collaborative Networks working to improve the conditions that impact health.
• Strong Community Partners equipped to advance health equity.

• Informed Decision-Makers prioritizing community health and well-being.

To accomplish our goals, Vitalyst worked with community organizations in two ways: 1) grantmaking and 2) programmatic work.

Grantmaking Work — As a grantmaking foundation, we supported Arizona-serving organizations and coalitions through grants focused on systems change.

This past fiscal year, Vitalyst continued to respond to our communities’ needs through our open-door Discovery process for Spark, Systems Change, Medical Assistance, Advocacy and Public Policy, and Place-Based collaborative grants.

Programmatic Work — As a programmatic foundation, we work directly with nonprofits whose work aligned with our programmatic priorities, listed below. Those priorities span across our three goals.

Housing – Supporting statewide housing initiatives along the spectrum of housing.

Our housing work focused on creating affordable housing solutions in the state through co-location, workforce development, and collaboration with the City of Phoenix’s Planning Commission. Vitalyst paired seven school districts and developers to envision housing on school properties. Based on their experiences, a toolkit was prepared and shared widely. These interactions led to other partnerships with churches and organizations like community health centers. Our work also helped institute policy changes to the City of Phoenix General Plan and plan codes.

Health Care Integration – Supporting health systems that integrate physical, mental and social determinants of health.

Our work in Health Care Integration significantly emphasized healthcare enrollment as the Medicaid redetermination of its membership continued, and 620,000 Arizonans lost AHCCCS coverage. The Cover Arizona Coalition worked hard, and 348,055 Arizonans enrolled in the Healthcare Marketplace, a 48 percent increase from the previous year. In addition, Vitalyst continued to support AHCCCS in its rollout of the closed-loop referral system, Community Cares, by gathering community feedback, which resulted in increased participation in the platform. We also supported Children’s Action Alliance to gather and share stakeholder feedback with AHCCCS to expand Open Cares, the school-based program that offers federal reimbursement for school-based services.

Civic Health – Supporting long-term efforts that improve active community participation.

Our civic health work focused on funding grassroots organizations to support undercounted and underrepresented communities in Arizona. Vitalyst hosted national civic health partners and participated on panels during several national conferences. We also published the Strengthening Civic Health in Arizona and Why Primaries Matter and What to Do About It Spark Briefs.

We hope this gives you a better understanding of how Vitalyst works. We look forward to our work together this next year.

 

Suzanne Pfister                       Sue Pepin, MD, MPH

President and CEO                 Vitalyst Health Foundation Board of Trustees Chair