This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, will assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential impact of participatory budgeting (PB) as a mode of civic engagement to improve health outcomes and advance equity for racially and ethnically marginalized communities, using “The People’s Money” initiative as the first city-wide test of a participatory budgeting intervention for New York City. The intervention allows community residents to decide how to spend allocated Mayoral funds on projects to address prioritized needs within communities.

This study investigates the impact of a novel independent practice association (IPA) formed among community-based social service organizations (CBOs) to address social determinants of health among residents of upstate New York. The Healthy Alliance IPA allows diverse CBOs offering services for housing, transportation, food, and other social needs to join together in a shared-governance association that facilitates referrals, care coordination, and performance-based contracting with health plans and medical providers.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of California’s Whole Person Care (WPC) initiative in coordinating health and social services for Medicaid beneficiaries with complex needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Projects underway in 26 counties engage Medicaid health plans, medical providers, mental health agencies, social service organizations, and public health agencies in collaborative models of care and payment that target specific population groups with complex needs in each county, including people experiencing homelessness, those transitioning from incarceration, and patients with multiple chronic medical conditions.

This study tests the effectiveness of multi-sector financing and delivery strategies in expanding the reach and impact of the Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program across the U.S. Despite rigorous evidence of its ability to improve health and social outcomes for low-income pregnant women and their children, the NFP home visiting program currently reaches only a small proportion of the communities and families who could benefit from it.

Lack of coordination of health and community services with individual agencies working in isolation leads to wasted resources and poor outcomes for the most vulnerable in our nation’s neighborhoods. One method of addressing this lack of coordination is by adopting a place-based system integration model where providers of services collaborate and work together to improve the health and well-being of the populations they serve.

Children affected by the opioid epidemic need a complex array of services and supports to safeguard their health and wellbeing, including child protective services, legal representation, educational services, comprehensive physical and mental health care, and often foster care placement coupled with family reunification strategies. Timely access to these services is especially difficult in rural areas. A research team led by Ohio State University will examine strategies that use regional, multi-sector governing boards to help organizations work together in coordinating services for children and families in rural areas.