Improving Health Care through Faith-Based and Community Partnerships
Improving Health Care through Faith-Based and Community Partnerships
Attendees look on as Nancy-Ann DeParle, assistant to the president and White House deputy chief of staff for policy welcomes the health care leaders to the White House. Also pictured at the head table are (L-R) Mara Vanderslice Kelly, acting director, HHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Joshua DuBois, special assistant to the president and executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Along with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships we welcomed a group of 16 hospital CEOs and senior leadership from health care systems across the country to the White House to discuss improving health outcomes through faith-based and community partnerships. The one-day event gave attendees an opportunity to seek and share best practices on partnerships and programs that work for the good of the community.
“In addition to spiritual support, turning to faith and community leaders for health and wellness is a part of many faiths,” said Joshua DuBois, special assistant to the president and executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. “By linking to the strong infrastructure of congregations, hospitals and care providers are able to reach deep into hard-to-reach and underserved communities to improve the health of Americans.”
The health systems invited to the meeting are unique, as their faith-based and community partnership programs are fully implemented within rural, urban and suburban communities and demonstrate their impact on the full community.
A portion of the day’s discussion focused on new health and wellness provisions included in the Affordable Care Act. Under the new law, those with new insurance plans can get preventive services like mammograms and other cancer screenings without paying a penny out of their own pockets. By making Medicare stronger, the law delivers less expensive prescription drugs to millions of seniors and, over time, closes the donut hole and makes preventive services free for everyone with Medicare. These provisions, combined with the innovative health care being provided by the health systems in attendance, make our communities healthier.
Faith and community leaders are trusted messengers within their communities and are on the front lines of fighting many of the health care issues that are plaguing so many underserved communities. By engaging faith and community leaders in collaborative partnerships, health providers can expand health care access, monitor which best practices are working in local communities and lower costs. “
By Mara Vanderslice Kelly
Mara Vanderslice Kelly is Acting Director and Senior Advisor at the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (The Partnership Center) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Mara Vanderslice Kelly – Acting Director
Mara Vanderslice Kelly is the Acting Director and Senior Advisor for the Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services. She leads the agency’s work to engage faith and community-based organizations around public health and human service delivery.
Previously, Mara was the Deputy Director of the White House Office for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships where she helped lead the White House’s inter-agency efforts to engage faith and community-based organizations to serve vulnerable populations and promote the common good. She is also the Coordinator of the first ever President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Mara has 14 years of experience at the intersection of faith and public life, having worked with numerous faith-based NGOs and elected officials. Her work on faith and public life has been featured in Time magazine, the New York Times, Christianity Today, NPR, and she appeared as a guest on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. Mara graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Earlham College in Richmond, IN.
About the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships
“The particular faith that motivates each of us can promote a greater good for all of us. Instead of driving us apart, our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife and rebuild what has broken; to lift up those who have fallen on hard times.
— President Barack Obama
The White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships forms partnerships between government at all levels and non-profit organizations, both secular and faith-based, to more effectively serve Americans in need.
The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships coordinates 12 Federal Centers for Faith-based and Community Initiatives. Each Center forms partnerships between its agency and faith-based and neighborhood organizations to advance specific goals. For example, the Department of Labor (DOL) Center forms partnerships between DOL and community-based groups to better integrate those groups in job training and workforce development programs. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Center helps to link DHS with community-based groups to address disaster response. Similar efforts are being implemented through Centers at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, and Veterans Affairs as well as the Small Business Administration, Corporation for National and Community Service and US. Agency for International Development.
The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships also coordinates the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. This Advisory Council is a group of 25 leaders from both faith-based and non-sectarian organizations, each serving 1-year terms. The Advisory Council forms recommendations on how the Federal Government can more effectively partner with faith-based and neighborhood organizations.
Learn more about the Advisory Council.
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The White House
* The above story is adapted from materials provided by The White House
