Targeted
As we address America's critical health and health care issues, the need for prompt action and impact is also evident. Within the Targeted Portfolio, we have chosen four critical issues to address head-on by setting specific time-limited objectives, benchmarks, a plan of action, and a budget to accomplish each objective. These four issues are:
- Childhood Obesity
- Coverage
- Public Health
- Quality/Equality
Human Capital
Since its inception, RWJF has recognized the importance of investing in the backbone of our health and health care delivery system—its people. A diverse, well-trained leadership and workforce is essential to improve the health and health care of all Americans. The Human Capital Portfolio focuses on supporting new methods in leadership development, building diversity in the health professions, increasing the number of health and health care professionals trained in quality improvement methods, addressing the nurse and nurse faculty shortage, and engaging the vast network of RWJF program alumni to create opportunities that help the Foundation and American society benefit more extensively from these leaders’ experience and expertise.
Vulnerable Populations
Improving health often means far more than improving access to medical care. Housing, education and income all significantly affect health, and those who lack them often bear a disproportionate share of the burden of disease. The Vulnerable Populations Portfolio creates immediate and lasting change in the health of highly vulnerable people by addressing their health within the context of these social factors. Vulnerable Populations programs have four goals in common:
- Offer an opportunity to improve health by taking a fresh approach to a long-standing problem;
- Address poor health status in the context of other factors like housing, education and poverty;
- Make fundamental changes in how services are organized and delivered; and
- Address the lack of policy, financing, or service integration among local service providers and state and federal agencies.
Pioneer
We seek and support innovative, often unconventional ideas and activities that may lead to breakthrough solutions in health and health care. Projects in the Pioneer Portfolio are typically future-oriented and explore solutions at the cutting edge of health and health care. We seek potentially disruptive ideas not only from mainstream health and health care but also from sources outside of these fields. We invest in innovators who look beyond incremental gains to create transformative, enduring change. In this way, the Pioneer Portfolio provides a distinct alternative and complement to other Foundation programs that focus on targeted problems or populations.