October 2013 Web version Forward to a Friend IN THIS ISSUE Convergence Partnership News Federal Updates In the News Resources Events The Convergence Partnership believes we must create environments that promote good health. People thrive when they live in communities that offer access to healthy foods and safe places to play and be active. The Partnership is not alone in this belief. The various activities, strategies, and resources outlined in our monthly newsletters lift up efforts aimed at creating environments that support healthy people in healthy places. If you know of efforts that focus on reducing inequities, encourage cross-sector partnerships, and stimulate action for policy change, please let us know! Convergence Partnership News Regional Convergence Partnership Special Series This month s e-newsletter spotlights the fifth segment of a five-part series on the work of partners supported by the Regional Convergence Initiative. This month we highlight the work of Livewell Colorado and Let s Go! Maine. http://www.kintera.org/cms.asp?id=4765269&campaign_id=137086&enstring=x 1/5
Established as a nonprofit organization in 2009, Livewell Colorado (LWC) coordinates several longstanding community-based obesity prevention initiatives in the state. The board is comprised of the two founding funders, Kaiser Permanente and the Colorado Health Foundation, along with members representing a number of other sectors including local government, education, economic development, and business. Underlying all of LWC s efforts is the goal to generate synergy and reduce duplication among existing projects and organizations. Let s Go! Maine was founded by seven organizations in Maine coming together to address the local obesity epidemic with a focus on children ages zero to 18. Together, United Way of Greater Portland, MaineHealth, Maine Medical Center, and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine recruited other private sector organizations (including Unum, Hannaford Bros., and TD Bank) to form a collaborative that helps sustain healthy eating, active living, and other prevention measures in Let's Go! communities. Let's Go! focuses on changing policies and environments to create healthy people and healthy places and has leveraged support from the national Convergence Partnership to explore the potential for sustained policy advocacy. To read more about the work of these regional convergence partnerships, along with others, please click here. Federal Updates As Congress Heads Back to Work, More Cuts in Store for Transportation Now that the government shutdown is over, advocates are re-doubling their efforts to support funding to critical government programs that are threatening to be cut or have already seen cuts due to sequestration. Transportation programs are among those on the chopping block for fiscal year 2014. Sequestration requires a minimum 7 percent cut to discretionary programs to meet budget caps. And the situation could get worse in fiscal year 2015 if Congress does not identify more, dedicated revenues for the transportation trust fund in the coming months. A reliance on only existing revenue from the federal gas tax would mean reductions in funds for highway and transit projects beginning next fall in fiscal year 2015. Take the example of a transportation program that already lost money due to sequestration. The Department of Transportation s (DOT) Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) competitive grant program lost $25 million in fiscal year 2013 and could lose as much as $41 million in fiscal year 2014. The TIGER grant program funds innovative transportation projects that often cross state lines and combine transit, freight, safety or other diverse uses, and are often hard to fund under older federal and state programs. Replacement of Maine s Penobscot River bridge, built in 1896 and widened in 1946, is one example of a project that is waiting for TIGER funding which has not yet come through. http://www.kintera.org/cms.asp?id=4765269&campaign_id=137086&enstring=x 2/5
These cuts to TIGER come on top of cuts already made to the program since 2010. If Congress had continued funding TIGER at its 2010 level every year since, DOT could have funded 50 more innovative transportation projects. Instead, those projects are still waiting in a long line, and the problems they are intended to address congestion, safety, efficiency, access to jobs are only getting worse. Temporary Increase in SNAP Benefits Slated to End October 31 A temporary increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits (formerly known as food stamps), in place since the 2009 federal government stimulus package, is set to expire today, Oct. 31. This will mean less food on the table for the 47 million Americans who use the program each month to access healthy, affordable food. Half of the Americans who access SNAP are children and teenagers. In 2009, the stimulus package increased funding to SNAP which allowed the benefit to go from $588 per month up to $668 per month for an average family of four. Starting Nov. 1, the stimulus funds will run out, meaning the same family will now receive $632 per month, about a 5 percent cut. This reduction in the monthly benefit comes just as Congress is negotiating potential deeper cuts to the program the House approved a measure that would cut $40 billion over ten years to SNAP in September and earlier in 2013 the Senate passed a version of the farm bill that proposed SNAP cuts of about $4 billion over ten years. Farm Bill Negotiations Restarted Now That Shutdown Over Congress has taken up the $500 billion federal farm bill again this week, now that the federal government shutdown is over. House and Senate negotiators need to come to agreement on a range of topics including funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Disagreement between the House and Senate on cuts to SNAP has delayed negotiations over the past few months. The contents of the bill that Congress will finalize in their joint House and Senate conference committee include $125 million for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), $20 million for healthy food incentives, and provisions for sustainable agriculture. (The Convergence Partnership has supported the development of each of these programs.) HFFI improves access to healthy foods in underserved communities across the country through critical loan and grant financing. Healthy food incentives provide SNAP recipients with an incentive of 30 cents for every dollar they spend on fruits and vegetables which has been shown to lead to a 25 percent increase in the amount of produce consumed. In the News http://www.kintera.org/cms.asp?id=4765269&campaign_id=137086&enstring=x 3/5
Kaiser Permanente Highlights Convergence Partnership in Policy Publication Kaiser Permanente s Institute for Health Policy published an article about the Convergence Partnership in their most recent edition of Kaiser Permanente Policy Story. The article details the Partnership and how its approach recognizes that our environment influences our health in many ways through exposure to pollution and chemical contaminants, barriers to physical activity, limited healthy food options, or lack of employment opportunities and that access to medical care is only part of the picture to improve health. The article lifts up the Partnership s efforts to bring together philanthropic organizations to develop multi-sector strategies to solve community health issues. For the full article, click here. Events SAVE THE DATE: San Joaquin Valley Funder Tour December 4-6, 2013 Fresno, California Funding and affinity group leaders will convene to see how different issue areas immigration, environmental justice, policy, land use planning, food systems, and community development intersect with one another in San Joaquin Valley. This group, representing a diverse spectrum, aims to encourage collaboration and strengthen interest and investment in the region. Registration opens this week. Click here for details and contact information. Water as Part of the Commons November 18, 2013, 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET Webinar Resources Health in All Policies: A Guide for State and Local Governments, Public Health Institute, California Department of Public Health, and American Public Health Association The guide helps advocates and practitioners better understand Health in All Policies, a collaborative approach to improving the health of all people by incorporating health considerations into decision-making across sectors and policy areas, drawing heavily on the experiences of the California Health in All Policies Task Force. Part 1 of a two-part Creating Common Ground series on water, agriculture, and health, this webinar will examine water as a part of the Commons, a shared resource upon which we all depend and for which we share responsibility. What does using the lens of the Commons mean when looking at water in the context of agriculture, food, and health? For more information and to register, click here. Addressing Obesity through Community Benefit http://www.kintera.org/cms.asp?id=4765269&campaign_id=137086&enstring=x 4/5
Activities: Assessing Needs and Determining Impact October 31, 2013, 10:00-11:30 a.m. ET Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance, this event will explore ways in which new community benefit reporting requirements for nonprofit hospitals may be used to address obesity. To register, click here. Unsubscribe from this mailing. http://www.kintera.org/cms.asp?id=4765269&campaign_id=137086&enstring=x 5/5