Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation

Investing Upstream

Dear Friends of Mt. Sinai:

It is commonplace for Mt. Sinai leadership to commence a talk on Foundation activity with the following statement: "Our name, the Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation, it is a bit of a misnomer. We are not about health care; we are about health before care. We are 'ounce of prevention' people." Since grantmaking began in 1997, Mt. Sinai has recognized that health philanthropy can do the most good by investing upstream, promoting health, and preventing human suffering and disease when possible.

This primary prevention approach has once again been the focus of Mt. Sinai's strategic work in 2017, as it witnessed the successful implementation of Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) in Cleveland by MetroHealth Medical Center. Bringing NFP to Cleveland was the brainchild of Mt. Sinai Board and staff who recognized that the prevention literature had singled out the nurse home-visiting program as among the most successful strategies not only for achieving healthier birth outcomes but for having lifelong benefits for both mom and baby. Babies who receive NFP nurse home visits are sixty percent less likely to be involved with the juvenile justice system at age fifteen compared to like teens who did not participate. Moms who participate beginning prenatally are sixty percent more likely to return to school or work after the baby is two years of age compared to a control group. With the help of Mt. Sinai's $1.2 million grant, NFP Cleveland has exceeded its caseload targets and has most recently been awarded a threeyear, $807,000 grant from the Nurse-Family Partnership National Program Office Innovation Fund to expand beyond MetroHealth's core patient population. We invite you to view the NFP Cleveland video, which highlights Mt. Sinai's role in bringing NFP to Cleveland for the first time since the program was founded more than thirty years ago.

Our "upstream" strategic approach, which aspires to "Make Greater Cleveland a place where all people have the opportunities they need to live up to their fullest health potential," is now under the direction of newly appointed Vice President, Strategy, Daniel Cohn. Dan, along with Program Officer Karil Bialostosky, has led the Foundation in a yearlong process that provides a framework to measure Mt. Sinai's overall impact on the health of the Greater Cleveland community using our grantmaking, our convening, and the implementation our health policy agenda.

As we strive to be an ever more impactful catalyst for health improvement in Greater Cleveland, we welcome your comments on our work and express our gratitude for your ongoing support.

Sincerely,

Susan Ratner

Susan Ratner
Chair, Board of Directors

Mitchell Balk

Mitchell Balk
President