Deadline: 5-Sep-22
Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF) is inviting proposals for Build the foundation for the healthy life Grant that address innovative programs to pilot, transition, and scale approaches that change the way in which positive health outcomes are financially rewarded.
The Foundation supports community-based clinics and community-based organizations to embrace the importance of early childhood brain development and to prioritize primary prevention work with low-income families beginning before or at the birth of their children.
Goal
- Build the foundation for a healthy life grant by investing in early childhood brain development
Priorities
- Provides or connects expectant people and primary caregivers of children in the first three years of life to programs and resources that build knowledge of skill for, and support “serve and return” practice and other aspects of a safe, stable, nurturing, and responsive caregiver/child relationship
- Identifies instances of perinatal mood disorder or other behavioral health issues in expectant people and primary caregivers of infants and toddlers and provides effective referrals to or direct support that equitably addresses these issues
- Uses evidence-based or promising screening and/or evaluation tools to measure the clinical and/or social impact on the caregiver, child, or on the caregiver/child dyad
Strategies
- Building Brain Development-Providers: Support early childhood brain development
- Building Brain Development-Community Organizations: Community-based organizations
Outcomes
In addition to the outcomes mentioned, emerging research and learnings from their program partners reinforce the importance of these facilitating factors:
- Sharing brain building science – including the strength-based aspects of relational health with expectant parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers
- Including parental behavioral health and equitable perinatal care, especially as it relates to building a foundation for optimal relational health
- Offering and/or supporting opportunities for caregivers to practice new brain-building skills with the child or children in their care
- Addressing parents’ feelings of isolation through group-based approaches that build community, knowledge, and skill
- Being consistently informed by and influenced by clients of the programs
- Taking an asset-based approach when supporting and sharing learning with parents and caregivers
- Having evidence of or attempting to measure change in caregiver/child relationship and/or interaction”
As they continue their work in this space, they are mindful of the many systems that impact families and their young children. While there is excellent and essential work taking place in the pre-K, formal and informal group childcare/early education, and child protection settings.
Eligibility Criteria
EHF makes grants to nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations whose work relates directly to EHF’s vision, goals and strategies. To be eligible, an organization must have received an Internal Revenue Service Determination Letter indicating that it is an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) or 170(c) and is not a private foundation within the meaning of Section 509(a) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Code.
For more information, visit EHF.
For more information, visit https://www.episcopalhealth.org/grantmaking/