The latest news and insights about hot topics, collaborations, events and resources for our national network.
Our network continues to move forward together, from expanding access to affordable, service-enriched housing and leveraging new rural health investments to sharing our unified voice on Capitol Hill to oppose further Medicaid cuts. We’re also welcoming new board members. Together we are connecting ideas and partners and helping advance opportunities that no single organization could accomplish alone!
— Alesia Frerichs, President & CEO
LEADING TOGETHER
Leveraging the RHT Fund to Improve Access to Care
The Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Fund is shaping how rural health care is financed, organized, and delivered. Nonprofits and community based organizations are essential partners in turning system level investments into real improvements in people’s lives. The Episcopal Health Foundation’s Shao-Chee Sim and our own Sue Polis explain how states are using the RHT Fund and where nonprofits fit in.
Lutheran Services in America is launching the Health Through Housing Learning Cohort this June. The cohort is a structured program for member organizations ready to move a service-enriched affordable housing project from concept toward financing. Participants will build capital stack literacy, develop key partnerships, and work toward an investor-ready project, culminating in a live pitch to aligned capital partners at a capstone event in early 2027.
Contact Sarah Gentner for information about an upcoming learning session.
Making Sense of Behavioral Health Measurement
Building on our Partnering for Impact guide, our new behavioral health paper highlights the shift toward outcome-focused measurement and offers guidance to providers on building “measurement readiness” for partnerships to improve outcomes for people on Medicaid.
Lutheran Services in America welcomes four new members to its board of directors: the Rev. Tiffany Chaney (Advocate Health Care), Stephanie Chedid (Luther Manor), Eileen Fitzgerald (ThruSight LLC), and Adam Marles (EverTrue).
Transforming Together: New Cohort Centers Lived Experience
With expert facilitation from Greater Good Studio, we launched the nine-month cohort Transforming Together with 14 members to embed lived experience at the center of how organizations operate and how they influence the systems in which they work.
The Policy & Advocacy Committee, Disability Network, and board of directors recently convened in Washington for a day of meetings with Congressional offices. Our asks were grounded in the next phase of our continuing unified effort in the Here We Stand campaign to protect Medicaid integrity while ensuring continued access to care.
As part of the Here We Stand campaign, we’ve created a short story collection questionnaire to help capture real-life examples of what Medicaid makes possible for individuals, families, and communities. Share this form with people in your network who may be willing to share their story. This could include individuals enrolled in Medicaid, providers, staff, or community partners.
Capitol Conversations – Reconciliation 3.0 and What’s Further at Stake for Medicaid: May 21 (Virtual) — Register (Capitol Conversations is held on the third Thursday of each month.)
LITN – Information Retention and Data Labels: May 27 (Virtual) — Register
Disability Network Summer Meeting: Aug. 4–6 (Philadelphia) — Learn more
MIF Partnership Helps Expand Memory Care at Josephine
Two former nursing wings at Josephine Caring Community (Stanwood, WA) are now a secure, light-filled Memory Care Unit made possible with financing from the Mission Investment Fund of the ELCA (MIF).
The project strengthens Josephine’s continuum of care for neighbors living with memory loss who don’t require skilled nursing — another example of its more than century-long commitment to compassionate senior care.
MIF is an experienced lender to social ministry organizations, offering competitive rates to finance a variety of projects. Both organizations and individual members of the ELCA are also eligible to invest with MIF, earning strong returns while helping support ministries like Josephine.
Learn how this partnership came together and what MIF can do for you.
With support from Lutheran Services in America and the Consumer Technology Association Foundation, an Eventide community in rural Nebraska is using interactive technology to personalize dementia care for older adults to reduce isolation and help residents and families reconnect.
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