The Global Vision Community Partnership Award was created in 1993 by the WHA Foundation. The Award’s goal is to provide recognition, financial support and public awareness of a community health initiative or project, created in partnership with a WHA hospital member, which successfully addresses a documented community health need through creativity, innovation, partnership, and collaboration.
Partnerships must reach across the community or population served, and the program must be an active, ongoing enterprise at the time of the nomination.
Submissions for the annual award due by July 15 each year, with the recipients announced in early September. For more information about the award, contact Jennifer Frank at 608-274-1820 or jfrank@wha.org.
2012 Global Vision Community Partnership Award Brochure
2012 Gloval Vision Award Nomination Form (MS Word version)
2011 Global Vision Award Winners
The WHA Foundation has selected The Fowler Memorial Free Dental Clinic, nominated by Monroe Clinic; and the Chippewa Health Improvement Partnership, nominated by St. Joseph's Hospital, as the recipients of the 2011 Global Vision Community Partnership Award.
"The Fowler Memorial Free Dental Clinic" (FMFDC) was conceived in 2005 as a result of the Green County Healthy Communities Coalition community health assessment. That assessment clearly showed a lack of dental services for those unable to pay for dental care and those covered by Medicaid. The outcome was the creation of the FMFDC to address dental emergencies for children between the ages of three and 12 who live in Green County. Dental equipment was donated by the family of the late Dr. Don Fowler, a local dentist, and clinic space is provided by the Green County Health Department. Several local pharmacies provide medications at minimum or no cost, and a referral relationship for restorative and preventive care has been established with the Federal Qualified Health Center in Darlington. Since opening in 2009, FMFDC has served 374 patients, providing 1,692 dental treatments, and decreased the number of pediatric dental emergencies by 83%.
The "Chippewa Health Improvement Partnership" (CHIP) is a collaborative community endeavor that serves as a catalyst for the enhancement of health and quality of life through educational and preventive initiatives in and around Chippewa Falls. CHIP serves as the umbrella for their community's health-related agencies, organizations, services and resources. For the past 17 years, CHIP has initiated and guided endeavors resulting in improvements in education, access to medical and dental care, quality childcare, transportation, employment opportunities, fall and safety prevention, substance abuse prevention, health literacy, community education and more. Governed by a steering committee of 20 community members, CHIP's many action teams of community representatives identify the health priorities and goals of area residents and utilize evidence-based strategies and innovative approaches to meeting the identified needs and facilitate collaborative activities directed at improving health status. St. Joseph's Hospital serves at the primary host of CHIP, providing financial support, employment of its director, office space and more.
2010 Global Vision Award Winners
The 2010 Global Vision Community Partnership Award winning programs, and their nominating hospitals, include the Women's Outpatient Center, nominated by Wheaton Franciscan - St. Joseph; and the Waukesha County Community Dental Clinic, nominated by ProHealth Care.
"The Women's Outpatient Center" (WOC) is a multidisciplinary clinic, opened in 2003, dedicated to providing exceptional care to low-income women and infants. Located within Wheaton Franciscan - St. Joseph's in Milwaukee, the WOC addresses disparities in health care by providing free OB/GYN services to low-income women, and providing a network of resources, giving patients access to social workers, language interpreters, financial counselors, dieticians and more. With objectives of increasing rates of prenatal care, increasing birth weight statistics and lowering fetal death/infant mortality rates, the WOC delivered over 400 babies in FY2009. Ninety percent were born with healthy birth-weights; only seven percent of newborns were placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 57 percent of pregnant patients initiated prenatal care in the first trimester, and 71 percent of African American patients began breastfeeding in the hospital, with 55 percent still breastfeeding at six weeks postpartum.
The "Waukesha County Community Dental Clinic" (WCCDC) is the direct result of community health providers identifying and addressing a top community need. The free-standing, non-profit dental clinic aims to increase access to dental care for the targeted population, increase preventive dental care for low-income children, decrease hospital emergency visits, and coordinate education and outreach by numerous community partners. The WCCDC focuses on providing basic comprehensive dental care to children and pregnant women and treating dental emergencies for both uninsured and publicly insured adults. Since opening in 2008, the clinic has served more than 4,000 patients during 8,900 appointments, and provides service to over 53 percent of the Medicaid-enrolled children in the area.