“The more things change,” goes the old saying, “the more they stay the same.” As a catalyst for community health, we view change as a vehicle for growth. The key, of course, is to recognize what should change and what should remain the same in order to be as effective as possible. Each choice reflects on an organization’s principles, priorities and goals.
We are a learning organization, consistently open to surprise and change. We are also firm in our commitment to discovering, investing in, and advocating for the essential elements to improve health in Arizona. In that regard, we also flip the script: the more things stay the same, the more they change.
Fiscal Year 2015 represents another productive set of steps on our consistently changing journey:
- Nearly 475,000 Arizonans gained access to care and coverage in 2015, which marked our second year of development, support and leadership for the 900+ member Cover Arizona Coalition. While no one could have anticipated a collaboration of such breadth and success over a decade ago, the effort is built upon principles declared in Arizona C.A.N. (Coverage and Access Now), SLHI’s issue brief of 2004.
- SLHI, the Maricopa County Department of Public Health and the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce have spearheaded a cross-sector collaboration to stimulate health care workforce development to improve care and drive economic growth. It’s an issue we first analyzed in 2002.
- We continued to deepen and broaden work with the City of Phoenix and Maricopa County on issues related to general plans, transportation, and access to healthy foods. The work reflects recognition that the built environment of cities and neighborhoods influences health significantly. Each initiative represents the next step on the journey toward community vitality and well-being that was first explored with Resilience (2003), as well as the direction that emerged from the Asset Based Community Development work of our $1 million Health in a New Key grants (2005).
- SLHI’s technical assistance work is adapting to meet new challenges and opportunities. It also includes significant growth in our fiscal sponsorship practice over the last two years. No matter how things change though, our goal remains “getting better together,” which was first established for technical assistance in 1999.
- 2015 marked the second year of Innovation Grants and saw an evolution for Medical Assistance Grants. Things are different than two years ago in the respect that we have refined our approach, but our commitment to being a catalyst for community health is resolute.
Much has changed, and will no doubt continue to do so in the coming years. Learning organizations thrive by being nimble, flexible and responsive. What remains constant is our dedication to learning, to leveraging our impact and to improving health in Arizona. Which is another way of saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Suzanne Pfister Gary Volkenant
President and CEO Board Chairman