rwjf
 

Our mission and goals

Nuestra misión y objetivos

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The mission of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is to improve the health and health care of all Americans. Our goal is clear: To help our society transform itself for the better. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted solely to the public's health, we have a unique capability and responsibility to confront the most pressing health and health care problems threatening our society.

As an independent philanthropy devoted to improving health policy and practice, we work with a diverse group of dedicated people and organizations to address problems at their roots and to help make a difference on the widest scale—particularly for the most vulnerable among us. Our efforts focus on improving both the health and of everyone in America, and their health care—how it's delivered, how it's paid for, and how well it does for patients and their families. As we invest in improving systems through which people receive care and in fostering environments that promote health and prevent disease and injury, we expect to achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change.

Our Approach

The philanthropy we practice seeks to be transformative—to change society and the lives of all Americans for the better. It is philanthropy that can alter the trajectory of families, neighborhoods and communities, prompt new public policies, trigger new private actions, change current systems—even invent entire new ones. Some examples of our past efforts are illustrative:

9-1-1

Today, every schoolchild in America knows to dial 9-1-1 in an emergency. That wasn't the case more than 35 years ago, when we first helped to create and spread what has become today’s modern emergency medical response system. Emergency medicine is now a professional discipline, and most hospitals, cities and towns have integrated emergency systems.

Tobacco

The changes in public behavior and attitudes concerning tobacco use are staggering and represent a tremendous public health success story. Fifteen years ago, we introduced new approaches for research, prevention and treatment of tobacco use that have achieved extraordinary results, improving the public’s health and saving millions of lives.

End-of-Life Care

We were instrumental in helping establish and legitimize the field of end-of-life care, developing guidelines for what constitutes good palliative care; training and mobilizing health professionals, consumers, families, and elected and appointed officials to change both policy and practice for the better; and promoting the adoption of palliative care programs into hundreds of hospitals across the United States. What was once an issue that was ignored or swept under the table is now an integral, recognized feature of high-quality care.

As we continue to address the difficult health and health care issues that face our country—like reversing the rise in childhood obesity; improving the quality of care and reducing disparities; raising the visibility, effectiveness and readiness of our public health systems; and ensuring that everyone in America has stable, affordable health care coverage—we hope, and expect, to have similar impact.

We are guided by a fundamental premise: we are stewards of private funds that must be used in the public's interest. Our greatest asset isn't our endowment; it's the way we help create leverage for change.

We create leverage by building evidence and producing, synthesizing and distributing knowledge, new ideas and expertise. We harness the power of partnerships by bringing together key players, collaborating with colleagues, and securing the sustained commitment of other funders and advocates to improve the health and health care of all Americans.

RWJF Areas of Focus

As the Foundation addresses America’s critical health and health care issues, the need for accountability and measurable impact is evident. We have chosen a group of critical issues to address by setting specific time-limited objectives, benchmarks, a plan of action, and a budget to accomplish the objective.

These interest areas include:

  • Childhood Obesity: Reversing the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015 by improving access to affordable healthy foods and increasing opportunities for physical activity in schools and communities across the nation.
  • Coverage: Ensuring that everyone in America has stable, affordable health care coverage through the development of policies and programs to expand health coverage and maximize enrollment in existing coverage programs.
  • Public Health: Strengthening the practice of public health and the implementation of policies to ensure the system can fulfill its vital role in protecting the safety and health of all Americans.
  • Quality/Equality: Helping communities set and achieve ambitious goals to improve the quality of health care in ways that matter to all patients and their families, and in particular to patients from specific racial and ethnic backgrounds who often experience lower-quality care.
  • Human Capital Portfolio: Fostering a diverse group of promising scholars and professionals through leadership development, training and research to ensure that our nation has a sufficient, well-trained workforce to meet our needs.
  • Vulnerable Populations Portfolio: Supporting promising new ideas that address health and health care problems that intersect with social factors—housing, poverty and inadequate education—and affect society's most vulnerable people, including low-income children and their families, frail older adults, adults with disabilities, the homeless, those with HIV/AIDS, and those with severe mental illness.
  • Pioneer Portfolio: Promoting fundamental breakthroughs in health and health care through innovative ideas and projects, which are future-oriented and look beyond conventional thinking.

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