Building Connections is an Rx Foundation Priority
The Rx Foundation values building relationships and peer-learning, and believes that these are important elements of our grant partnerships. We are committed to creating opportunities for our partners to learn from each other, to build relationships, and to collaborate. With 20 years of relationships and a broad network, the Rx Foundation often functions as a hub for connecting leaders, organizations, and resources.
Rx Advocacy Partners Network
In April 2020, in the chaos of the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rx Foundation convened our first virtual meeting of Building Capacity for Health Advocacy grant partners. More than 20 people joined that first meeting, from 15 organizations, and since then the network has met quarterly. The agenda for each meeting is developed in partnership with grant partners, who take the lead in sharing their work and discussing their challenges and opportunities, finding inspiration and solidarity in these conversations. Some of these partners were already networked, and others had never previously crossed paths.
The Rx Advocacy Partners Network meetings focus on peer-led learning and cultivating an environment of learning – rather than just telling – where participants are encouraged to ask questions without knowing all the answers.
The peer learning community helped me understand how other peer orgs dealt with the real challenges of capacity building. I also received coaching resources that met me and my org where we were. Together, these tools were unmatched in helping me truly get what I needed to grow my organization!
– Robyn Hyden, Executive Director of Alabama Arise
This network is the hub around which the Rx Foundation provides additional resources that go beyond grant dollars. This includes funding for training, coaching, and technical assistance with organizations like PowerLabs, Social Movement Technologies, and Families USA.
COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Convening
In February 2021, the Rx Foundation convened a two-day meeting of Vaccine Equity grant partners, allies, and funders to discuss the lessons learned and ongoing challenges of reaching historically disenfranchised communities with the COVID-19 vaccines. Presenters included Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, Young Invincibles, and community leaders from Mobile, AL and Columbus, OH.
Among the grant-funded work that led to this convening, the Rx Foundation funded Grapevine Health to work with organizations in the Vaccine Equity network to reach Black and brown communities with accurate information about COVID-19 and the vaccines. This included spending time in neighborhoods with community leaders, even answering questions about the vaccines outside a gas station, as well as virtual “Ask the Doc” sessions.
Dr. Lisa On the Street in Mobile, AL
What is Grapevine Health?
Dr. Fabian in Crown Heights
What we learned in working in hard-to-reach communities is that small wins are big wins. Any and all resources provided to people with little or no resources really make a big difference.
-Charlotte Rudolph, Eastern Union Missionary Baptist Association
Rx Grant Partner: El Centro in Kansas City, KS
Rx Grant Partner: La Casita Center in Louisville, KY
Rx Grant Partner: Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition
Power is a Social Determinant of Health series
In 2022 the Rx Foundation launched a series of meetings and webinars built around the belief that power is a social determinant of health. This series brings together people leading and implementing advocacy, organizing, civic engagement, and grassroots health justice work across the United States, as well as with funders, researchers and other allies who care about these issues.
Together we have learned from innovative work led by the United Vision Project, Missouri Organizing and Voter Engagement Collaborative (MOVE), and People’s Action, and engaged with tough questions and lessons learned from Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) Los Angeles, Social Movement Technologies, and more.
Below are two session previews from our most recent webinars with Vaccine Plus partners and Dr. Alister Martin of A Healthier Democracy.