Michigan Health Endowment Fund

The 988 Su***de and Crisis Lifeline provides compassionate, confidential care for people experiencing emotional distress or crisis. In observance of National Su***de Prevention Month, we're excited to join with partners to recognize today as Michigan's inaugural 988 Day! The day's chosen theme — "No Judgment. Just Help." — says it all. Join us in helping spread the word.

988 Day Michigan's Women, Infants & Children program, providing supplemental nutrition, breastfeeding information, and other resources for healthy mothers & babies.

"The garden is a beautiful place where it doesn't matter your age or affiliation, your gender, your nationality. We can come together and grow."

Health Fund grant partners FitKids360 are bringing young people and their families into the garden to support their health and wellbeing. Find out how in State of Health:

Youth Mentor Gardens grow food, family, and community in Detroit and Grand Rapids area At two Youth Mentor Gardens, participating teens and their families work together to plant, w**d, water, mulch, and harvest produce.

The Health Fund's Community Health Impact (CHI) Initiative supports projects that engage communities and incorporate their voices in health solutions designed to serve them. As we head into our second CHI funding cycle for 2024, our recent blog looks at projects supported through CHI that have done this well:

Approaches to engagement in Community Health Impact projects Our recent blog highlights successful approaches to community engagement for projects funded through our CHI program.

Supporting cross-sector partnerships that drive progress on health issues is the foundation of our Collaborative Capacity Building grant program, but we recognize health leaders can benefit from guidance on how to best join forces. That's why we engaged Healthy Places by Design to offer a training called Collaboration Lab to a cohort of Health Fund grantees. In our latest blog post, guest authors from Healthy Places by Design share how this training impacts partnerships and offer resources and practices to strengthen collaboration:

Guest Blog: Supporting collective action and impact through collaborative leadership The Health Fund has engaged Healthy Places by Design to offer a cohort-based learning program called Collaboration Lab, which provides a rare opportunity for formal collaboration training. To explain the Collaboration Lab model, impact, and the collaborative practices it teaches, we invited Phil Bor...

With support from a Health Fund grant, Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University are training health care providers to connect more effectively with their older adult patients during telehealth visits. This project is part of a larger effort to make telehealth more accessible for all:

“Telehealth is for everyone” is guiding light at Henry Ford Health Learn how the Detroit-based health system works to ensure older patients can virtually connect with their doctors to better manage chronic conditions.

A Health Fund grant is supporting the Michigan Local Food Council Network to advance equitable food access and help local communities achieve sovereignty over their food and agricultural systems. This work brings together local food councils from across the state and includes a food systems leadership program, coaching cohorts, seed grant opportunities, and more:

Modeling Food Sovereignty in Michigan’s Local Food Councils The Michigan Local Food Council Network, a part of the MSU Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS), will work to identify and support community-defined and led food sovereignty efforts among historically underserved communities in Michigan.

Many older adults and their caregivers could benefit from Area Agencies on Aging, State Health Insurance Assistance Programs and other options for long-term services and supports. One challenge: a lack of awareness about available supports could be preventing many from accessing the help they need. The latest poll extra from the Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging shows our state is doing better in awareness of these resources than the nation as a whole, but also points out where we can improve:

Most older adults don’t know about resources that can help them navigate aging & caregiving Poll shows need to build awareness of Area Agencies on Aging, State Health Insurance Assistance Programs and options for long-term services and supports