We focus on the systems that influence people’s health. For example, the systems that determine who qualifies for different types of health care coverage or how health care is paid for and delivered. If you can change the rules for how these systems operate, you can have a huge effect and benefit many people.
What does that mean for grants?
We prioritize projects that focus on changing the structures, policies, and practices that create racial and ethnic health disparities. That could mean advocating for changes to policies or making sure that the voices of those most affected are heard during debates about policy changes.
Focusing on systems change efforts also means that we typically do not provide grants to support direct services. There are simply too many worthy services to be able to support them all. However, we do consider grants to organizations testing out how to deliver a service in a different way or evaluating whether a certain type of service is effective in addressing health disparities.
Here are some examples of types of projects that we fund:
- Developing or piloting a better way to deliver care.
- Researching sustainable funding options for programs or services that will lead to more equitable outcomes.
- Elevating community voices to encourage engagement in the policy process.
- Piloting innovative or new approaches to health equity that can be scaled.
- Evaluating a program, policy, or process to determine its effectiveness and ingredients for success.
- Finding a new way to solve a problem or health disparity.
- Supporting news coverage of issues related to health equity in Connecticut.
Take our eligibility quiz to learn more.
What we plan to fund in 2025
For each year of our 2024-2028 strategic plan, we plan to develop guidelines for the types of projects we will consider for funding within each goal area. You can read the full version of our 2025 grants guidelines here.
Goal 1: Expanding health care coverage
In 2025, we plan to fund:
- Policy and advocacy efforts to protect and expand HUSKY eligibility to cover more undocumented residents.
- Policy and advocacy efforts to protect Covered Connecticut.
- Research and data on the need for expanded coverage for people who have incomes just above the HUSKY threshold.
- Monitoring the implementation of Covered Connecticut and HUSKY expansion to better understand the experiences of those who seek or need coverage, whether they can get and maintain coverage and use it to get care, and any barriers they face.
- Monitoring how parents and other caretakers who lose HUSKY coverage because of the new eligibility limits are affected and whether they get another form of coverage.
Search our grants database for examples of projects we’ve funded related to coverage expansion here.
Goal 2: Sustainable funding for community health workers
In 2025, we plan to fund:
- Policy and advocacy efforts that organize and mobilize community health workers to support the integration of the workforce into clinical and nonclinical settings.
- Policy and advocacy efforts that organize and mobilize support for funding community health workers through Medicaid.
Search our grants database for examples of projects we’ve funded related to community health workers here. Check our topic guide on CHWs here.
Goal 3: Maternal health equity for people of color
In 2025, the foundation will wrap up an extensive research process and will publish a blueprint for maternal health equity for people of color in Connecticut. We anticipate that most grantmaking related to this blueprint will begin in 2026. We anticipate that most grants related to maternal health made in 2025 will be made through the President’s discretionary grant process and will focus on:
- Policy and advocacy efforts that organize and mobilize support for funding for doulas through Medicaid.
- Monitoring the implementation of the doula certification process to better understand the experiences of those who apply for certification and any barriers they face.
Examples of funding in maternal health will be available through our grants database after awards are made.
Goal 4: Fostering the infrastructure for health equity
CT Health does much of our work through policy and advocacy. Many of these grants are by invitation only or we may issue requests for proposals to support specific advocacy efforts or to find new advocacy partners. In addition to our advocacy funding, our grants in this area typically include:
- Support to health systems and other care providers that are implementing self-reported race, ethnicity, and preferred language data collection projects, which may include community engagement work and public information campaigns to support patient awareness of data collection and understanding of how data will be used.
- Support for news reporting on health care to provide insight, inform debate, and ensure that critical topics reach broad audiences.
Search our grants database for examples of media projects we’ve funded here and race, ethnicity, and language data projects here.