Health Justice Award
About the Health Justice Award
Launched in 2022, the Health Justice Award, graciously sponsored by Aetna, a CVS Health Company from 2022-2024, recognizes organizations that have successfully implemented a program or intervention to reduce health disparities. This marks a new and significant way for the Coalition to elevate the efforts of an organization doing critical work to address the social determinants of health and related gaps in health outcomes. Recipients are awarded $25,000 to support their work and they are formally recognized at each year's National Summit.
2023 Health Justice Award Winner: El Centro de Corazón
Founded in 1994, El Centro de Corazon is a renowned Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) with three locations in Houston’s East End. El Centro offers a comprehensive range of adult and pediatric health care services for the underserved, uninsured and underinsured—including primary care and family medicine, women’s health, and dental and behavioral health services. El Centro assists patients in overcoming barriers to health care access, addresses food insecurity and provides interventions that target social determinants of health (SDOH). In 2022, El Centro provided direct patient care to 12,471 low-income children and adults for a total of 46,991 patient visits. El Centro’s mission is to be the leader in improving the well-being of the communities it serves through the provision of quality health care and the delivery of innovative programs and a vision to be the cornerstone of a healthier community.
We celebrate all of our finalists, including:
Matter Health builds out and operates primary care clinics within the lobby of low-income /affordable senior properties. Matter has partnered with variety of developers and Public Housing Authorities to build out clinics in their senior properties to bring healthcare directly to underserved seniors living within affordable housing. Matter Health is a Nashville, TN-based social enterprise that was founded to bring primary care services directly to low-income, underserved seniors where they live.
Lurie Children’s Potocsnak Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine’s Community Programs & Initiative’s team implements comprehensive programs and services to support the holistic needs and health of TGNC youth. These systemic and individualized student supports include: gender equity trainings, technical assistance and consultation for schools, policy/procedure development and implementation, inclusive and affirming sexual health education, Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) specific sexual health education, and social groups for transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) youth.
2022 Health Justice Award Winner: Generate Health's FLOURISH
Generate Health’s FLOURISH is a cross-sector initiative that has brought together community members impacted by racial inequities with key sectors, including healthcare, social service organizations, business, and education to address St. Louis’ infant mortality crisis and eliminate racial disparities in infant mortality by 2033. Among the many activities undertaken by FLOURISH, the program provides education and resources, such as portable cribs and wearable blankets, to new parents to help reduce the risk of unsafe sleep and unintended infant death. Efforts have also focused on advocating for improved housing conditions and engagement and mobilization of residents, local government, elected officials, and managed care payors to hold the St. Louis Housing Authority accountable for implementing improvements and ensuring a healthy living environment.
We celebrate all of our finalists, including:
Northwell Health - Department of Community and Population Health, headquartered in the NYC region, epicenter of the COVID outbreak, emerged as a national leader in addressing COVID’s disproportionate impact on vulnerable, low-income and communities of color. Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, Northwell has treated more than276,000 inpatient and ambulatory COVID patients. Northwell has administered nearly 100,000 COVID tests and 462,000+ COVID vaccinations in partnership with more than 100 community, faith-based, Tribal and county state representative partners who comprise their Health Equity Taskforce, at more than 1,157 faith and community pop-up locations.
Resources for Human Development (RHD) – Housing Smart in Philadelphia, along with partners Temple University Health System, Keystone First, and Health Partners Plans launched Housing Smart in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in April of 2020 to improve mental health, physical health and housing stability for individuals experiencing homelessness and with behavioral health challenges. The program has seen a 74% reduction in ER visits; 50% reduction in in-patient hospital stays; 76% increase in clients seeking care from a primary care provider at a community clinic and a 94% reduction in client visits to mental health Crisis Response Centers.
Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers (SSCHC) has worked to improve people’s health outcomes since 1969. Since 2019, SSCHC has specifically worked to reduce housing insecurity using qualitative and quantitative data to expand and change the traditional narrative about what drives health and delivery of health care and social services. Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients’ Assets, Risks, and Experiences (PRAPARE) software is used to screen patients about their social service needs and provide qualitative survey results to give a deeper understanding of housing instability and its effects on patient non-medical issues. In 2020, SSCHC served 42,973 patients through four full-service health clinics. In one year (April 2020-April 2021), SSCHC was able to provide more than $80,000 in rental assistance to patients and provided more than $28,000 to patients in financial support for utilities. In total, since 2018, SSCHC has completed 5,586 screenings.