Grantee Spotlight: THE GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION

COLORADO

La Cocina

Fort Collins, CO | $75,000

La Cocina’s Integrative Latine Behavioral Healthcare Institute and Applied Liberation Psychology Practice Center will support new bilingual (Spanish-English) faculty and Spanish-speaking trainees, including two fellows, two individuals with masters degrees and four paraprofessionals. La Cocina’s training center delivers culturally-affirming social, emotional and neurodevelopmental healthcare in Spanish.

HealthTeamWorks

‍Golden, CO | $75,000

Recruit and train 25 under-sourced young adults entering the healthcare workforce in clinical health coach, community health worker, and care management workforce development positions. Provide wrap-around social and professional development support and stipends for education expenses. Connect targeted adults with services and healthcare organizations that are hiring.

Mental Health Colorado (Envision:You)‍

Denver, CO | $71,917

Deliver statewide training to 120-140 behavioral health providers regarding mental health needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning (LGBTQ+) Coloradans that result from systemic discrimination, biases in healthcare that negatively impact treatment, and providing culturally responsive and affirming care to these individuals.

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IOWA

University of Iowa Healthcare

Iowa City, IA | $75,000

Provide scholarships for four new students in the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Nurse-Midwifery Education Program (NMEP) in the fall of 2024. By increasing the diversity in the midwifery field, the project aims to improve birth and maternal outcomes in the diverse populations they serve.

Indian Hills Community College‍

Ottumwa, IA | $74,017

Provide paid summer EMT apprenticeships to 15 participants ages 17-24 years from disadvantaged backgrounds in south central Iowa. The program includes state approved EMT coursework leading to national certification testing, on-the-job training with local healthcare employers, career exploration, and soft skills training. The goals are to grow the workforce and improve health outcomes in the region.

Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque

Dubuque, IA | $75,000

Train 20 certified Marshallese (10) and Spanish (10) language medical interpreters from the local community through the Eastern Iowa Certified Medical Interpreter Pilot Project, which is aimed at reducing language barriers and increasing positive healthcare outcomes for immigrants. The pilot will improve health access and create career opportunities.

“We are so grateful for the support from Telligen Community Initiative that is enabling us to train and certify our own community members in medical interpretation and translation, which we believe will bridge a major gap in services and improve the health and well-being of some of our most underserved populations.”

— Alex Baum, Dir. of Advocacy, Data & Learning, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque

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OKLAHOMA

Madison Strategies Group‍

Tulsa, OK | $75,000

Provide no-cost training, career coaching, job placement and wrap-around support to 75 underserved individuals, preparing them for careers in healthcare that offer livable wages and opportunities for career advancement. Services are offered through WorkAdvance, a workforce development program designed to build a skilled and inclusive healthcare workforce and sustainable healthcare employers.

American Cancer Society

‍Oklahoma City, OK | $63,063

Support eight paid research internships for undergraduate students interested in careers in cancer research through the American Cancer Society (ACS) Diversity in Cancer Research (DICR) Internship Program. The interns, whose whose racial or ethnic background is under-represented in the scientific community, will receive 10 weeks of hands-on lab experience and mentorship in clinical settings.

The University of Tulsa‍

Tulsa, OK | $74,962

Provide 360 high school students with exposure experiences to spark their interest in pursuing a healthcare career through the STudents Reaching Excellence Through Collaboration with Higher EDucation (STRETCHED) program. The overall goal of the program is to increase the number of healthcare practitioners from limited-income, first-generation and underrepresented minority groups.

Imani's Village, Inc.‍

Oklahoma City, OK | $40,000

Provide free doula services to 40 birthing families to enhance infant and maternal health in the Black community, which currently experiences the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality. Evidence shows that receiving doula support during pregnancy, birth and postpartum leads to improved mental and physical outcomes.

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ILLINOIS

VNA HealthCare

Aurora, IL | $75,000

Support 8-10 VNA employees to pursue one year of study in the nursing field through VNA’s Nursing Career Pathway Program, which improves opportunities for career development, closes staffing gaps, and promotes diversity and equity in the organization’s nursing workforce. Cover 75% of tuition of under-resourced individuals pursing a nursing career at VNA serving vulnerable populations.

Chicago Volunteer Doulas‍

Chicago, IL | $75,000

Educate and train 25 Doulas, making them eligible for Medicaid reimbursement and equipping them with employable skills. Trained and certified Doulas will help decrease infant mortality in their communities by serving under-resourced families.

Shawnee Health Services Development Corporation‍

Carterville, IL | $75,000

Provide salaries, benefits and educational costs for two dental assistance apprentices as well as financial support for a dental assistant preceptor that will train and oversee the apprentices. The organization’s apprentice program promotes dental health and provides jobs in an area where dental positions have been difficult to fill.

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Grantee Spotlight: THE GYEDI PROJECT

The Gyedi Project received a $75,000 grant from TCI in December 2023 to address the growing inequity in maternal health outcomes among Black communities in Colorado. The project uses an interdisciplinary and culturally responsive approach to maternal health education of Black women, which leverages the trust and expertise of Black health professionals.

The project has developed strong partnerships with community leaders and partnering Black medical professionals, both of which have helped it gain traction in Black communities they serve.

In addition, its cornerstone program, HearMe20, which involves 20-minute listening and education sessions with Black professionals trained in cultural responsiveness and community engagement, has been impactful to many members of underserved Black communities.

Since January 2024, The Gyedi Project has served 79 community members, the majority of which are ages 18-28 years (59.3%), and identified as Black immigrant (57.6%) or African American (49.2%).

Much has been learned from The Gyedi Project already. First, incorporating input from community members and leaders helps create health programs that are better designed to fit and serve the community’s needs. Secondly, Black health professionals are a trusted source of education, empowerment and support to underserved Black communities, and their experience and expertise should be integrated into health programs to improve and sustain health equity.

We are very excited to see the full results of The Gyedi Project, which is on track for completion by the end of the calendar year. This extremely innovative project is making a real difference in underserved Black communities by improving maternal health outcomes for Black women and children.

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‍Grantee Spotlight: THE GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION

In May 2024, TCI provided a $10,000 grant to the Great Outdoors Foundation (GOF) to conduct a feasibility study exploring the possibility of collaborating with other nonprofit organizations to maximize limited staff and resources while also jointly advancing the mission of each collaborating organization.

The Great Outdoors Foundation is Central Iowa’s pathway to sustainable, healthy environments. GOF is a regional conservation leader and a catalyst for high impact environmental projects that convenes partners with a shared vision, drives collaboration, and raises awareness and funds to advance conservation-based work. GOF is also a participant in TCI’s Synergy Center — a shared office space curated by TCI for health-related organizations addressing various facets of the social determinants of health.

The Great Outdoors Foundation is actively pursuing collaboration with nonprofit organizations in the conservation sector to enhance the impact of their collective efforts.

The focus is on addressing the challenges faced by nonprofits with limited staff, resources and capacity. GOF recognizes that more impactful structure may benefit these organizations, which is driving its efforts to provide support, financial guidance, and ensure the effective management of donor investments. GOF has already had successful strategic alliances with ICON Water Trails and Iowa Wildlife Federation.

Although this type of collaboration is exciting, all too often the promise of cross-organizational exploration and collaboration is not fully resourced by funders to fully realize what may be possible in this space.

The Sustained Collaboration Network describes a whole series of ways a strategic partnership can realize themselves to improve nonprofit reach, impact or efficiency of services to the community. This can take multiple forms, but much of what GOF has been investigating is around shared service collaborations. Shared program collaborations use joint resources to create a project, program or service that produces a joint outcome.

Though this work is not yet finalized, TCI's collaboration with GOF on this journey has highlighted the need for dedicated resources to advance cross-organizational work that goes beyond grant project collaboration. We have committed staff time to assist with exploration of this type of work, which could take the form of shared staffing or back-office collaborative positions that could benefit all participants. Additionally, TCI is actively considering how to weave this type of targeted support into our work, which is separate from more project-oriented funding that has been our historical trademark.

We believe this type of work is far under recognized and under resourced. We are better together when working collaboratively and TCI wants to consider how to partner more readily and regularly for this type of exploration and deployment as we move toward our 20th anniversary in 2025.

If your organization has engaged in this type of collaborative support, please reach out to TCI a tmmcgarvey@telligenci.org. We’d love to hear about your experience and learn where funder resources could be most beneficial to you.

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GOF's work is demonstrating how a small funding award can offer nonprofits time and space to thoughtfully and intentionally consider what might be possible through joint programming and strategic alliance-based work.