Opportunities

We encourage you to explore this page for emerging opportunities. By sharing our portfolio of work at every stage of our process, we hope that you and others will be inspired to reach out - to invest as a funder or to partner locally in the design and test of new solutions that ensure health and wellbeing for you and the people that matter most to you. If you don’t see anything that sparks your interest here, reach out to us to schedule a conversation where we can document a high-priority issue in your community and explore ways to partner.

THE PROBLEM SPACE

Solving the right problem

DEFINE

Expanding

SCAN

the ideas

Contracting

the ideas

PRIORITIZE

THE SOLUTION SPACE

Solving the problem right

Expanding

DESIGN

solutions

Contracting

TEST

solutions

We scan the landscape to better understand the root causes of the problem and whether there are opportunities for innovation to address the problem.

Here are problem statements in our scan phase:

We are currently determining what problem statements to research and will begin another scan cycle this summer.

Schedule an intake with us to share issues in your community that you want support in addressing

Working with community partners, we envision potential solutions to address the problem and narrow in on a solution and co-design with community a prototype of it.

Here are projects in our design phase:

Integrating Local Changemakers into our Innovation Process

Problem Statement

Local changemakers in communities disconnected from systems of support are critical to integrating in our innovation process to ensure our work is centering and priorities the needs of isolated and underinvested communites.

Design Question

How might we design a community advisory board to ensure ideas are seeded by and power is ceded to these communities in order to drive the system change needed to move towards achieving our vision of a anti-racist future?

Adapted Design: Modifying our Assessment Tool for Inclusive Integration of Health Promoters

Problem Statement

Promoters who are working with social service institutions have struggled to be integrated in inclusive and equitable ways due to systemic racism in workplace policies and practices.

Design Question

How might we adapt the design of an assessment tool for inclusive integration of promoters into healthcare institutions to support social service institutions to strengthen their workplace policies and practices to equitably integrate monolingual, non-English-speaking Promoters?

We define a specific gap or problem in a community that is critical to address in order to advance racial health equity. To ground our problem statements in an understanding of the needs of the community, we ensure they include who is being impacted, what problem they are experiencing, and why the issue exists.

Here are problem statements we have defined that are ready to enter the scan phase:

Addressing Maternal Mortality Using the Pareto Lens

Black mothers in Louisiana are experiencing higher rates of maternal death due to healthcare resources focused on the birthing experience which leave essential needs that protect against maternal mortality unmet.

Inequities in Access to Clean and Affordable Water

Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, who are primarily Black with median household income under $40K, are disproportionately impacted by water-related crises that impact their health and well-being because of our country’s history of structural racism and oppression that has created inequities in access to clean, affordable water.

Asthma Risk Among Black and Native American Youth

Adolescents between 12 and 17 years old who identify as Black and/or Indigenous with moderate to severe asthma are experiencing higher rates of mental illness due to the exacerbated stress of asthma risk and attacks induced by climate emergencies without sufficient mental health resources.

With the support of funders who share our vision and values, we work with local community partners to prioritize opportunities. This includes scoping project resources, engaging key stakeholders, and developing a meaningful timeline.

Here are the opportunities in the prioritize phase:

Inequities in Access to Benefits and Food Security

Problem Statement

Families with students eligible for free and reduced lunch in Mississippi lack access to a new federal summer EBT program to reduce their food insecurity in summer months due to the state's racist public benefit policies resulting in rejection of offering the benefit in their state with the highest poverty rate and highest percentage of Black population in the country.

Opportunity

Seeking community partners who are working to address food insecurity for Black children and families in Mississippi and are interested in a collaborative research and design partner to support their development of a community-driven solution to food and/or benefit inequities for their community. If you or someone you know would like to work with us on this opportunity, please contact us.

Water rights and climate-related risks

Problem Statement

Indigenous communities in the Colorado Basin are experiencing inequities in access to water, which are exacerbated by climate-related crises such as droughts, because of the lack of acknowledgment of basic rights and lack of enforcement of legal rights due to the colonial history of erasure and racism.

Opportunity

Seeking community partners who are from or work to support Indigenous communities in the Colorado Basin area to improve access to sustainable water systems and are interested in a collaborative research and design partner to support in those efforts. If you or someone you know would like to work with us on this problem statement, please contact us.

Foster Youth and Transition-Aged Foster Youth

Problem Statement

Black and Spanish-speaking Latinx Foster youth, ages 13-17, and young adults who have aged out of the system (18-20) in the Houston area are in a continuous state of survival mode because the lack of attention and outreach by state social services leave them disconnected from essential social benefits critical to supporting basic needs.

Opportunity

We are currently exploring the opportunity to reduce the administrative burdens of social services among young people exiting state care by outreach at their local libraries.

Cultural Responsiveness in Primary Care

Problem Statement

Due to the lack of culturally relevant models of care, South Asian adults (ages 30-60) in Chicago, Illinois, are not able to engage in their own and their families healthcare, which exacerbates the risk of chronic health conditions because the westernized approach in our current ethnocentric system of care disempowers them to stay actively engaged with their providers.

Opportunity

We are currently exploring the opportunity to design and test novel community health needs assessment metrics with an organization in Chicago to assess intergenerational dynamics, gaps and supports.

We develop our research plan and test design, and then conduct a usability study of the prototype and refine it based on insights gathered.

Here are projects in our test phase:

Refined Design: Storytelling Tool to Engage Isolated Caregivers

Problem Statement

Local BIPOC community- based organizations (CBOs), who are often operating in survival mode, aren't receiving the necessary investment to develop solutions to meet the priority needs of their communities.

Research Hypothesis

Providing alternative, accessible communication platforms for caregivers not reached through existing channels will increase the quantity and diversity of shared narratives, leading to improved interpretation and actionable outcomes.

Refined Design: Design Lab Investing in BIPOC Community Leaders

Problem Statement

Research Hypothesis

Training and supporting new coaches with human-centered design thinking skills whose values align with R&D’s work allows for support of more Makers within a cohort to design solutions for their community and the potential to sustain and scale the model outside of Health Leads to expand support and investment in BIPOC community leaders.

Initial Design: Assessment Tool for Inclusive Integration of Health Promoters

Problem Statement

Promoters who are working with healthcare institutions have struggled to be integrated in inclusive and equitable ways due to systemic racism in workplace policies and practices.

Research Hypothesis

A power-shifting assessment tool can support healthcare institutional champions to assess their workplace practices and policies, understand the opportunities for change, and advocate for action-taking necessary to improve their workplace practices and policies towards equitable and inclusive integration of monolingual, non-English-speaking Promoters.

Opportunities

THE PROBLEM SPACE

DEFINE

SCAN

PRIORITIZE

THE SOLUTION SPACE

DESIGN

TEST

SHARE

Integrating Local Changemakers into our Innovation Process

Problem Statement

Design Question

Adapted Design: Modifying our Assessment Tool for Inclusive Integration of Health Promoters

Problem Statement

Design Question

Addressing Maternal Mortality Using the Pareto Lens

Inequities in Access to Clean and Affordable Water

Asthma Risk Among Black and Native American Youth

Inequities in Access to Benefits and Food Security

Problem Statement

Opportunity

Water rights and climate-related risks

Problem Statement

Opportunity

Foster Youth and Transition-Aged Foster Youth

Problem Statement

Opportunity

Cultural Responsiveness in Primary Care

Problem Statement

Opportunity

Refined Design: Storytelling Tool to Engage Isolated Caregivers

Problem Statement

Research Hypothesis

Refined Design: Design Lab Investing in BIPOC Community Leaders

Problem Statement

Research Hypothesis

Initial Design: Assessment Tool for Inclusive Integration of Health Promoters

Problem Statement

Research Hypothesis