Responsive Grants Program – Objective Definitions
Our responsive grants program is designed for you to bring ideas that you believe will help improve challenges faced in the community you serve. We encourage exploration and experimentation with new approaches, innovation and breakthrough ideas. Grant funding is highly competitive; organizations that apply for responsive grants program will have to compete across the pool of applications for the objectives outlined below.
Have questions? We’re here to talk through your ideas and encourage you to connect with us before applying for funding. If you don’t already work with a program officer, please reach out to us by email or by phone at 303-953-3600, and be sure to note the county you work in and area of interest.
Definitions:
Maintain Healthy Bodies
Patient Barriers
The Foundation defines patient barriers as those that keep an individual from accessing the necessary primary care they need in a timely manner. Barriers can include cost, transportation, clinic accessibility and the availability of culturally responsive care. For more information on barriers, please refer to the Foundation’s report series, The Health Care Perceptions of Low-income Coloradans.
Primary Care Workforce
The Foundation defines primary care as the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. The primary care workforce continuum includes all of the workforce positions that are critical to delivering person-centered and integrated primary care (e.g. medical assistants, behavioral health therapists, dental hygienists, nurses, physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, etc.)
Nurture Healthy Minds
Caregiver Resources
The Foundation defines a caregiver as those individuals who assume responsibility for a child’s care and education, including napping, meals and other routines. Formal, informal and familial caregivers are inclusive of licensed child care and home-based care providers; family, friend, neighbor care; and parents or other primary caregivers.
Adult Recovery Supports
The Foundation’s Adult Recovery Priority encompasses mental health and substance use and is guided by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) definition of recovery. We are defining nontraditional programs as those that meet one or more of SAMHSA’s dimensions of recovery (health, home, purpose and community). Examples of nontraditional programs may include peer-led support services, programs connecting people to meaningful employment and recovery housing.
Strengthen Community Health
Community Food Programs
The Foundation defines food insecurity as a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. A collaborative community-level effort is a partnership of two or more organizations working to align and enhance local food systems and/or reduce barriers to accessing food within a specific geographic area. This objective is not intended to support or expand the operations and/or programming of individual organizations.
Food Program Participation
The term “public food assistance programs” is intended to only include the following federal food assistance programs administered by the USDA office of Food and Nutrition Service: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); School Breakfast Program (SBP); National School Lunch Program (NSLP); Summer Food Service Program (SFSP); and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP).
Housing Financial Assistance
The Foundation defines purchasing power as the financial ability to buy or rent housing. Financial assistance can include a variety of supports, including navigation assistance, financial counseling, educational opportunities, outreach and enrollment support, and direct financial assistance (e.g., rental assistance), among others. However, direct financial assistance must be provided in conjunction with other wrap-around services using a comprehensive, holistic, consumer-driven approach that results in renewed housing stability. The Foundation defines housing stability as the ability to find and maintain stable, safe, and affordable housing.
Housing Programs
The Foundation seeks to support programs to better reach and serve low-income populations in need of affordable housing opportunities. For example, programs that provide eviction prevention services, financial counseling, navigation assistance and connection to resources, educational opportunities, outreach and enrollment support, among others. Programs must be informed by the communities they seek to serve and be linguistically and culturally responsive. Support for direct financial assistance (e.g., rental assistance, down payment assistance) is not eligible under this objective.
Champion Health Equity
Community Capacity
Our intent is to support efforts that increase or enhance the strength of community* capacity through development of strong relationships and connections among community members and to ensure that community voice is authentically reflected in programs, services and initiatives.
- Social Capital: The networks, norms and trust that enable community members to act together more effectively to pursue shared objectives.
- Community Building: The fostering and utilization of community talent, knowledge and resources to shape the community’s future.
- Community: A social group of any size whose members reside in a specific and shared locality, and often have common characteristics, interests and/or cultural and historical heritage.
*We are looking to support low-income communities.
Leadership Development
This effort is focused on helping to strengthen health equity through investing in low-income Coloradans, including individuals who have historically had less power or privilege to *lead. Our intent is to support the capacity of these individuals to take action regardless of current role, responsibilities or title. We are interested in supporting culturally appropriate (relevant) requests that work at the individual, organizational or community level or across multiple levels.
*We believe that the ability to lead is already present and that there are experiences, tools and resources that can help people lead more effectively.