Providing Thought-Leadership
Since its creation in 2000, the Highmark Foundation has created urgency around many public health issues facing the region.
Telling the story of our impact
The Foundation funds strategic and evidence-based initiatives that educate, protect and ultimately improve the overall health care of the large population it serves.
It has accomplished this by collaborating with regional, national and global experts to help manage and prevent disease, fund health promotion and education programs, and improve access to health care across the region.
The Foundation understands how vital it is to report back to the community on several of its major initiatives which have far reaching impact and that can be applied by other foundations across the country. Our dedicated staff has not merely overseen the implementation of successful grant programs; they have developed comprehensive publications to report on their overall impact.
Publications
The Cost Benefit of Bullying Prevention: A First-Time Look at Savings
Prepared by the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Windber Research Institute, The Cost Benefit of Bulling is an outgrowth of the Foundation’s ongoing bullying prevention initiative. It looks at the financial impact that could be anticipated based on the expansion of the Foundation-funded implementation of the evidence-based OBPP over a three-year period and in the 49 Pennsylvania counties it serves.
Preventing Bullying in Schools Through Partnerships
This report focuses on the Highmark Foundation’s continued efforts to prevent bullying in schools and its implementation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP). The Highmark Foundation’s goal was to expose as many schools as possible in its service region to the OBPP. The program itself is meant to reduce bullying and to increase schools’ capacities to prevent bullying. The positive outcomes of the coalition have provided solid evidence that bullying prevention investments yield positive results.
Highmark Healthy High 5: A Five-Year Initiative Report
This interactive report details the success, lessons learned and impact of the Highmark Healthy High 5, a five-year $100-million initiative of the Highmark Foundation. This unprecedented program focused on promotion of five key areas of children’s health—nutrition, physical activity, bullying prevention, grieving and self-esteem. The report features 14 videos of experts, organizations and children that participated in this initiative. The report also provides critical foundations for successful implementation of large-scale children’s health promotion efforts.
Pennsylvania Bullying Prevention Toolkit
The Pennsylvania Bullying Prevention Toolkit helps to educate and bridge current gaps in the system and ensures that parents and various agencies have a fast track to assessing and meeting needs when a bullying situation causes distress in families. By supporting the development of this toolkit, the Highmark Foundation seeks to provide a lasting and valued resource to address difficult bullying incidents.
Maternal Depression: Strengthening Systems of Care
This report highlights community and programmatic strategies supported by one national and several local grants to reduce maternal depression. These public health strategies provide greater access to coordinated maternal and child health care through cohesive systems-level approaches. As a result of these proactive approaches, mothers, children and families have access to affordable, quality resources to assist with challenges associated with maternal depression.
Bullying Prevention: The Impact on Pennsylvania School Children
This is the second formal report on the Highmark Foundation's bullying prevention initiative. This initiative continues to be the largest implementation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in the country.
Working Together: Improving Access to Oral Care and Dental Care for Underserved Populations
This report, published in 2010, details the successful comprehensive and multilevel strategy that helped improve the quality of oral health and dental care among underserved individuals and individuals with special needs in Pennsylvania. The Highmark Foundation targeted its funding towards safety net providers across the Commonwealth.
Hospitals: Strengthening Systems & Supporting Communities
This report issued in June 2010 highlights programs and services developed and offered by community hospitals and health systems to assist communities in preventing or reducing illnesses and chronic diseases, and in providing greater access for the uninsured. The grants provided rural and urban hospitals with resources to increase access to care and to build capacity to implement and deliver a wide range of programs and services.
Translating Community-Based Participatory Research into Practical Solutions
This report, published in November 2009, reviews practical evidence-based solutions and programs created from community-based participatory research (CBPR) designed to reduce the burden of chronic disease in underserved populations.
Bullying Prevention: A Statewide Collaborative That Works
This study, issued in November 2009, features three years of data on the implementation of the HALT! and PA CARES bullying prevention programs in Pennsylvania schools.
Safety Net Providers: Filling the Gap, Increasing Access and Improving Health Outcomes
This September 2009 report discusses the ability of safety net providers such as Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), also known as Community Health Centers (CHCs), Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alikes (FQHC-LAs), Free Clinics, and Rural Health Centers (RHCs) to reduce costs of chronic disease through access to preventive health programs.
Improving Access to Diabetes Care and Services in Pennsylvania through Coordinated Strategies
Issued in June 2009, this report details community-based programs and services created to reduce the effect of diabetes. These programs aimed to increase access to diabetes care and services for minorities and underserved individuals in western and central Pennsylvania.
Addressing the Nursing Shortage in Pennsylvania through Grantmaking
This report published in March 2009 details the Highmark Foundation's efforts to fund five colleges and universities in Pennsylvania to establish scholarships, enhance simulation centers and develop different teaching modalities to enhance their capacity to recruit and retain students.
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Initiatives
Read more about major initiatives that the Highmark Foundation has funded during its history
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