Download the one-page pdf flyer with details about the Sequoia Healthcare District/Sequoia Hospital Live Well Workshop for managing chronic disease starting March 1. Registration is limited.

Live Well Workshop — Manage Chronic Disease  Flyer

Download pdf of Feb. 1, 2012 Board Meeting Agenda and Materials

Caring Community Grants

2012-13 Grant Cycle

Description and Preliminary Schedule

•Open to 501(c)3 nonprofits serving residents of the Sequoia Healthcare District

•Nonprofits may apply for up to three grants with a maximum of $250,000 total grants per organization per grant cycle.

•Administrative overhead must not consume more than 15 percent of grant award (85 percent for program services).

•Organizations may collaborate to submit one grant.

•Non-discrimination statement required as part of grant contract.

•When a nonprofit applies for a renewal grant the following process will be used: Mid-term report due at six months, in-person staff evaluation at nine months required to assure that program is on target to make goals.

•Preference given to grants that have other funders (district objective is to fund no more than 66 percent of program budget).

•Grantee should indicate the impact of reduced funding should district choose not to fund full request.

•Should grantee purchase outside evaluation of program impact, cost must be borne by organization or must be apportioned as part of 15 percent allowable overhead.

TIMELINE

Feb. 10, 2012 and Feb. 13, 2012 — Informational meetings held from 9 a.m. to noon at district headquarters, 525 Veterans Blvd., Redwood City

March, 2012 — Submittal of Letters of Intent by grant requestors

April, 2012 — District visits agencies

May, 2012 — District Grants Committee recommends grants to District Board of Directors for action

June, 2012 — 2012–13 Caring Community grantees approved by the board

Agenda

Dowload pdf of agenda and materials:

Sequoia Healthcare District Agenda and Materials, Dec. 7, 2011

‘WALKING SCHOOL BUS’ PROJECT LEVERAGES MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN FEDERAL ‘SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL’ FUNDS

October 26, 2011

REDWOOD CITY, CA — A $30,000 Sequoia Healthcare District grant that created “walking school buses” in Redwood City schools in June of 2010 has leveraged in excess of $1 million in federal Safe Routes to School funds that will benefit a half-dozen Redwood City schools, thousands of students and their families, bicyclists and pedestrians using major thoroughfares.

Safe Routes to School was authorized by Congress in 2005 to “to enable and encourage children…to walk and bicycle to school, to make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age.”
Safe Routes also funds programs “that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption, and air pollution in the vicinity (approximately 2 miles) of primary and middle schools.”
Targeted schools and their environs are Hoover, Hawes, Garfield, Fair Oaks, John Gill and Roy Cloud elementary and Adelante Spanish Immersion schools, all in the Redwood City School District.
The City of Redwood City will receive the grants totaling $1.15 million next year through Safe Routes and a federal program administered by the San Mateo City/County Association of Governments and the California Department of Transportation. Redwood City 2020 will administer a $210,000 non-infrastructure grant.
Redwood City 2020 is a partnership of the Redwood City School District, Sequoia Healthcare District, the City of Redwood City, Sequoia Union High School District, San Mateo County, Kaiser Permanente, Sequoia Healthcare District, and the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University.
Redwood City 2020 Executive Director Patricia Brown thanked Sequoia Healthcare District for providing the funding and the focus that brought to light the federal funding opportunities.
The Walking School Bus at Fair Oaks School in June of 2010 led to the establishment of Sequoia Healthcare District’s Healthy Schools Initiative.
This three-year, minimum $6 million commitment to public school districts in central and southern San Mateo County is funding school nurses, wellness coordinators, physical education instructors, nutrition education programs and school gardens for more than 23,000 public school students.

According to Nadine Levin, consultant to Redwood City 2020, Sequoia Healthcare District funding allowed 2020 to “really concentrate on the Safe Routes to School issue, to look for other funding sources and work with the schools in the Redwood City School District.”
Federal sources say that the number of children walking or bicycling to school has plummeted over the last 40 years. Where 50 percent of children did so in 1969, only 15 percent do today. The federal government links this decline to a sedentary lifestyle that makes children at risk for a variety of health problems, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. It’s not for want to desire that more parents shuttle children to school by car. Traffic danger consistently ranks as the chief concern of those who do not let their children walk to school.
The new grant funds will pay for professional walk-ability assessments and create a task force that includes a host of stakeholders, including the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department, Redwood City Police, school administrators, parents, city planning officials and others. The goal is to establish sustainable programs at each of the six schools that increase walking and cycling.
In addition, the funds will pay for design of pedestrian and bicycle improvements at three intersections on Hudson Street between Whipple Avenue and Woodside Road and improvements near Hoover School.
“Redwood City 2020 appreciates Sequoia Healthcare District’s initial support for the Walking School Bus and Safe Routes to School,” Executive Director Brown said. “With this help from our valued partner, Redwood City 2020 has been able to leverage much-needed resources to make walking and biking to school an everyday occurrence.”
A walking school bus is a carefully coordinated activity involving students, parents, teachers and administrators that gets school-bound children out of cars at some distance from school and walking under supervision the rest of the way.
Sequoia Healthcare District’s funding was provided as part of the district’s Healthy Schools Initiative, the first application of the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Coordinated School Health Model by a healthcare district in the State of California.
“Partnering with Redwood City 2020 to improve the level of safety of children as they increase their daily physical activity by biking and walking to school aligns with the goals of Healthy Schools,” said Pamela Kurtzman, Director of the Healthy Schools Initiative. “We applaud Redwood City 2020 for their diligence in leveraging these resources.”
Sequoia Healthcare District returns approximately $10 million annually to the community in the form of nonprofit grants, district initiatives and education programs on tax earnings of approximately $8 million.
The district serves the cities of Atherton, Belmont, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Carlos, Woodside and portions of San Mateo and Foster City from Skyline Boulevard to the Bay.

SEQUOIA HEALTHCARE DISTRICT TO PROVIDE
CHRONIC DISEASE SELF-MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTION
FOR RESIDENTS

REDWOOD CITY — With an estimated 30,000 chronic disease sufferers within the district, Sequoia Healthcare District will now provide free chronic disease self-management instruction under a pilot program modeled after a Stanford University Medical School curriculum and approved by directors this week.

The first instructor will be District Chief Executive Officer Lee Michelson, who fulfills the Stanford requirement for instructors because he also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease.

Michelson has completed a four-day, 32-hour training program required by Stanford.

The pilot program approved on a vote Wednesday can fund up to 25 classes per year at an estimated cost to the district of $1,000 per class. In addition to instruction, Sequoia Healthcare District will provide each class member a textbook, Living a Healthy Life With Chronic Conditions, and an audio relaxation tape, Time for Healing, both of which are required.

The pilot program will start with one or two classes, Michelson indicated. Participants, who must be chronic disease patients or their caregivers, must commit to weekly two and one-half-hour training sessions for six weeks. The curriculum requires two instructors per class, one or both of whom are chronic disease sufferers and both of whom have been through instructor training.

The program has proved to be both effective for the participants managing chronic conditions and cost-effective for health providers. A controlled study of 1,000 participants with heart disease, lung disease, stroke or arthritis done by Stanford showed the program derived reductions in healthcare costs that were four times the cost of the program.

Compared to non-participants, participants showed “significant improvements in exercise, cognitive symptom management, communication with physicians, self-reported general health, health distress, fatigue, disability, and social/role activities limitations. They also spent fewer days in the hospital, and there was also a trend toward fewer outpatients visits and hospitalizations,” according to the study.

The pilot program represents the first time Sequoia Healthcare District will involve itself directly in chronic disease self-management.

Presently a portion of the district’s Caring Community grant to the Edgewood Center for Children and Families funds a chronic disease self-management program, but it reaches only about 40 people a year.

Sequoia Healthcare District does operate two community health programs directly — HeartSafe, which places automated external defibrillators in public places and provides Lucas chest compression devices to area emergency personnel, and the Healthy Schools Initiative, a three-year pilot program to provide nurses, wellness coordinators and physical activity instructors in public school districts.

Initial classroom sessions will be held at selected senior or community centers, the locations yet to be established. The healthcare district will draw on its extensive network of community organizations it supports — for example, it has funded 27 nonprofit organizations at a cost of $1.5 million in its 2012 Caring Community Grant Award program — to publicize the availability of the program.

“There is such a tremendous need for this program in the community,” board President Kim Griffin said. “I’m very happy we are getting involved in this.”

Michelson said the $25,000 in funding will come from a budgeted account that was approved by directors for community programs in the current budget but that has not been used.

Sequoia Healthcare District provides major funding to numerous non-profit community health organizations that directly assist more 35,000 women, children and seniors in the district, which includes the cities of Atherton, Belmont, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Carlos, Woodside, and portions of San Mateo and Foster City from Skyline Boulevard to the Bay.

2011_10_05_Meeting_Agenda

SEQUOIA HEALTHCARE DISTRICT
REVIEWS FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN

REDWOOD CITY/Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011 — A more expansive statement of its mission and a clearer view of future revenues and use of reserve funds are possible outcomes of a study session of the Sequoia Healthcare District Board of Directors held today to review where the district stands halfway through its five-year strategic plan.

Though it was a study session and no votes were taken, discussion and board give-and-take appeared to form consensus around some issues. Other suggested changes to district goals did not generate much discussion or support.

A change to its mission statement, carefully crafted in 2009 through a collaboration with community members, district directors and a consulting team, garnered generally positive comments — inserting the word “all” to make it read, “Sequoia Healthcare District’s mission is to improve the quality of life for all District residents by enhancing access to healthcare services and by supporting and encouraging programs and activities designed to achieve health, wellness, and disease prevention.”

Comments suggested that the district considers itself responsible for all segments of population within its boundaries, insured and uninsured, hospital patients or patients of public health clinics, young, old and in-between. The district currently operates two major programs, HeartSafe and Healthy Schools, funds a nursing education collaborative with San Francisco State University and Cañada College, matches donations to the nonprofit Sequoia Hospital Foundation, supports the county’s Healthy Kids program and grants funding to 27 community nonprofits.

On the financial side, consensus seemed to be that the approved goal of preparing a five-year revenue and expenditure plan and revising it every year is unrealistic because the district — and, perhaps, no one — has the foresight to be able to predict with accuracy what the financial picture will be like five years down the road, especially when federal healthcare reform is about to change how doctors, insurers and hospitals are paid and how healthcare needs of a much larger population of insureds will be served.

However, district CEO Lee Michelson reported, financial staff with Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), the operator

-more-

Sequoia Hospital, have said they will attempt to project three to five years into the future the amount of revenue Sequoia Healthcare District will receive from the hospital on an annual basis. Catholic Healthcare West and the district negotiated a compensation package when ownership of the hospital transferred to CHW in the late 90s. Under the agreement CHW makes a payment once a year based on its earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization (EBIDA).

EBIDA payments have ranged between $2.3 and more than $6.7 million. CHW’s projections could help the district budget programs more reliably. Directors generally commented that projections longer than three years would not be necessary because conditions five years out would be impossible to predict.

Guided by Tuesday’s discussion, CEO Michelson will formulate a new goals document to be voted upon by directors at a future agendized board meeting.

Special Meeeting Board Agenda 9-27-11 (Downloadable pdf)

Eighteen School-Based Nonprofits to Receive Healthy Schools Grants

REDWOOD CITY/Aug. 18, 2011 — More than 28,000 Peninsula children returning to school this month and next will have the benefit of fitness, mental and social health programs, counseling and nutrition education, thanks to an innovative collaboration created by Sequoia Healthcare District in association with eight public school districts.

To commemorate the second year of Sequoia’s Healthy Schools Initiative, the district will host 18 school-based nonprofit organizations at its inaugural Healthy Schools Grants Reception Thursday, Aug. 18 to distribute more than $400,000 in grant funds benefiting public school students.

Sequoia Healthcare District’s Healthy School’s Initiative represents a three-year, $6 million commitment to public schools.

It is the only initiative of its kind in California to be undertaken by a public healthcare district as it applies the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Cooperative School Health model for the improvement of public health.

Grant recipients include Sequoia High School’s Peninsula Team Ascent program, Center for Youth’s life skills program, Hidden Villa’s school garden and nutrition education, Peninsula Conflict Resolution’s school-based life skills and violence prevention training for at-risk youth,

Serve the Peninsula’s counseling and mental health education program for at-risk freshmen, Menlo-Atherton High’s parent training, the Redwood City Education Foundation’s All Wellness mini-grants, Sequoia Union High School District’s adolescent counseling services, counseling and mental health programs at Woodside High, Star-Vista’s Healthy Sequoia Program at Sequoia High, pre-school child development programs for low-income students attending the College of San Mateo, Teen Talk health education for Redwood City, San Carlos and Belmont students, court and community schools counseling by Cleo Eulau Center, grant awards for Footsteps Afterschool healthy eating programs, garden-based nutrition education through UC Cooperative Extension, Collective Roots school gardens and drug and alcohol prevention programs for 13 through 19 year-olds through El Centro de Libertad.

Cash-strapped public schools have all but eliminated these and similar programs as budget reductions have pared all public school budgets. Sequoia Healthcare District stepped in several years ago by funding school nurses in schools where thousands of students had lost access to them. Last year the district decided to adopt and fund the CDC’s school health model, a step usually taken by large school districts in the state that had access to the funding to support it.

Grants to be distributed Thursday supplement more than $2 million to be distributed this year directly to every school district within Sequoia Healthcare District to provide school nurses, wellness directors, nutrition educators, physical education instructors and related staff.

School districts supported include Belmont-Redwood Shores, Las Lomitas, Menlo Park City, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Carlos, and Woodside elementary school districts and the Sequoia Union High School District.

Sequoia Healthcare District provides major funding to numerous non-profit community health organizations that directly assist more 35,000 women, children and seniors in the district, which includes the cities of Atherton, Belmont, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Carlos, Woodside, and portions of San Mateo and Foster City from Skyline Boulevard to the Bay.