Over fiscal year 2022 – 2023 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023), Vitalyst Health Foundation has taken on some challenges and better-aligned its focus. As you may recall, during fiscal year 2021 – 2022, we listened to valued community partners and worked with our staff and Board of Trustees to do a Strategic Roadmap Refresh, leading to updated goals:

• Collaborative Networks working to improve the conditions that impact health. 
• Strong Community Partners equipped to advance health equity. 

• Informed Decision-Makers prioritizing community health and well-being. 

But those goals are broad, and the Elements of a Healthy Community are comprehensive. We had to find ways to focus our work and deepen our impact. Informed by community partners, our own experiences and expertise, Vitalyst staff developed a set of criteria to determine how to refine our focus. These include criteria such as having a real potential for impact; ensuring each priority requires action across all three goals; requiring each priority to be cross-sector in nature; and having confidence that Vitalyst has the capacity to provide meaningful impact to each priority selected. In the end, our team came to four priorities for Vitalyst’s fiscal year 2022-2023: Civic Health; Food Systems; Health Care Integration and Housing. Most importantly, these priorities had to span across each one of our three goals.

Civic Health – Supporting long-term efforts that improve active community participation.

Our work in civic health supported collaborative networks focused on building the infrastructure of grassroots organizations that improve community and civic health leading up to the 2030 Census. This is building on new community and national funding resources. We worked to strengthen our partners’ capacity building through technical assistance, grants, and contracts. And finally, we will educate key stakeholders on the connection between civic health and the health of communities.

Food Systems– Strengthening food systems across rural and urban areas in Arizona.

Our work in food systems helped foster collaborative networks focused on creating stronger Indigenous, rural, and urban food systems. Through partnerships, like the City of Phoenix, we continued to advance urban farm preservation in areas like South Phoenix.

Health Care Integration – Supporting health systems that integrate physical, mental and social determinants of health.

Our work in health care integration helped foster collaborative networks that integrate behavioral health approaches into first-responder systems and integrate medical care with the social determinants of health. Working with partners like the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) we helped strengthen partners working to adopt new systems that create networks between medical and social services, as well as partners working to embed behavioral health and trauma-informed practices into medical care. Vitalyst also worked to inform decision-makers and candidates about the integration of social determinants of health across state agencies and sectors, and to inform them about emerging models integrating behavioral health and first-response.

Housing – Supporting statewide housing initiatives along the spectrum of housing.

Continuing our work from the past two years, Vitalyst brought together collaboratives working to develop better housing solutions that bring attainable housing to schools, a solution we identified as an option to the housing shortage Arizona is facing. Vitalyst continued to work with partners from government and the nonprofit sector to support housing-related ideas that emerged from stakeholder meetings and collaboratives, and supported policy initiatives aimed at providing additional housing solutions.

We hope this helps you understand how we planned our work for the fiscal year and highlights our work and our partners’ work.

View our audited financials here.

 

Joshua Peterson                                                Suzanne Pfister
Board Chair                                                         President and CEO