Committed to Connecting Families
The Foundation helps connect families to quality care in Baton Rouge.
Multiple aspects impact the health of a community
Access to healthy foods, availability of medical providers including general practitioners, specialists, and mental health professionals, emotional support networks, and many more factors play a vital role in driving health outcomes.
Community Health
Too often, we hear about Baton Rouge placing poorly on national surveys that rank health indicators for metropolitan communities across our country. We feel it is high time to tackle some of those indicators head on.
Community Health will be the third installment of our ongoing Opportunity Data Project.
Through this work we are evaluating health through the lens of community-level data. What circumstances are true for citizens in good health? What is true for citizens in poor health? How do we bridge the gap between those two realities? Through the Opportunity Data Project, we will identify tangible, impactful initiatives to support better community health outcomes.
Historical projects furthering healthy families include:
The Health District
In 2011, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation funded a master plan to transform the medical corridor into a coordinated Health District. The aim was to enhance the well-being of patients and visitors, improve traffic flow, and create a unified medical community. The Health District brings medical providers to the same table to enable better healthcare, clinical trials, and collaboration among researchers and physicians. Providers in the Baton Rouge Health District can leverage their unique capabilities to deliver high-quality healthcare in a way that is greater than the sum of their parts.
As a unified medical community, the Health District provides a platform for community health initiatives and collaboration. Whether it is finding shared cost savings or supporting research, the Health District exists to maximize the positive impact of its member institutions. Though initially created through planning led by the Foundation, the Health District is now an independent nonprofit organization.
The Bridge Center for Hope
In 2014, The Foundation conducted extensive research to identify the best practices across the country and collaborated with community stakeholders to support the planning of Bridge Center for Hope to offer treatment options for people suffering from mental and behavioral health issues. The aim was to create a comprehensive care system that covers everything from prevention to rehabilitation. Since its opening, the Bridge Center has provided care to over 5,400 residents, helping them receive the care they need and deserve.
Resilient Baton Rouge
Supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through fiscal sponsorship from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Resilient Baton Rouge connected families with mental health resources after the great flood of 2016. Grant funding enabled four Federally Qualified Health Centers to hire additional licensed counselors and conduct new outreach. The aim was to increase awareness of community attributes that affect resilience and to develop resources and approaches that communities can use to enhance their resilience.
Expanding Access to Autism Resources
In 2016, the Foundation collaborated with the Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation to sponsor and present a report on the available resources to families whose children had been diagnosed with autism in the capital area. This report resulted in 25 recommendations to help these families and improve health and support systems. The Capital Area Autism Network (CAAN) was formed to follow through on enacting the recommendations within that report.
As a direct result of the Autism Study, we partnered with Exceptional Lives, Inc. to launch a completely free online resource to support families across the state. Launched in August 2017, ExceptionalLives.org has now seen more than 1.5 million visitors. Healthy families are essential to a thriving community, and we adapt our initiatives to meet changing needs, aiming for a brighter, healthier future for everyone in Baton Rouge.
For More Information
Contact us for more information or to get involved.
Eric Dexter
Vice President of Civic Leadership Initiatives