At our inception, Community Health Foundation’s board of trustees carefully developed our mission, goals and operating principles to reflect our organizational values and the realities of health care in today’s United States.  While our strategies might change to meet community needs, these guidelines will always inform our funding decisions.

To learn how the following play out in our day-to-day work, see the discussions of our working philosophy and priorities.

Mission

To improve the health and healthcare of the people and communities of Western and Central New York

Goals

Ø      To develop a sound basis of knowledge and understanding of the actual state of health and healthcare in our communities and to establish priorities for change and improvement based on regular review.

Ø      To improve access to healthcare for all and, as our highest priority, to close gaps in care for those people who are under-served and vulnerable: the uninsured, the underinsured, and those with ethnic, social, or racial barriers to care.

Ø       To support medical care and delivery improvement initiatives in our communities that can be systematically assessed and meet one or more of these criteria:

§         are likely to improve patient safety;

§         are likely to improve the quality and outcomes of care;

§         represent or stimulate promising innovation in organization, delivery, or financing;

§         improve prevention and health promotion; and/or

§         assist individuals and communities in being more effective stewards of their own health.

Ø       To collaborate and to build effective relationships with groups and individuals and private and public partners that share our commitment to community health improvement.

Ø       To contribute to the improvement of institutions and programs of medical care, research and education in our communities.

Ø       To preserve and build foundation assets and to seek partners to leverage funds for foundation initiatives.

Ø       To inform regional, state, and national policymaking and support programs to promote health and prevent disease including public health research related to wellness.

Founding Principles

1.       We will be a catalyst to help stakeholders think beyond daily issues, work toward achieving positive outcomes, and develop flexible, innovative models for service delivery.

2.       In designing healthcare improvement strategies, we invest in improvement strategies that are collaborative, comprehensive and take into account the priorities and incentives for all necessary parties.

3.       We keep the best interests of the individual at the core of our strategy and community investment decisions.  We also work closely with other funders to assure concordance of strategy and collaboration of action.

4.       We take a long-term view of our investments and projects, building in change metrics from the beginning and advancing models with the greatest likelihood of sustainability and self-sufficiency.

5.       We recognize that many stakeholders–providers, individuals, organizations and the community-at-large–play a role in efforts to improve health and health care.

6.       We advance strategies based on scientific evidence, having a built-in capacity to report outcomes. We also advocate for and provide vehicles for public accountability through tracking of results and reporting of outcomes.

7.       Our strategies invest in the strength of the safety net's leadership and management capacities to address a wide range of management and workforce development needs.