Well Being Trust Announces New Grants Focused on Increasing Access to the Vital Community Conditions for Well Being
Well Being Trust announces new grants focused on increasing access to the vital community conditions for well-being —reliable transportation, humane housing, thriving natural world, basic needs for health & safety, meaningful work and wealth, lifelong learning, 
and belonging & civic muscle.
The grants will be applied to a portfolio of initiatives working on issues ranging from increasing social impact financing, to ensuring adequate access to transportation, to preventing childhood cancer, to improving mental health outcomes. The investments are part of the Well Being Alliance, a network of more than 25 leading US non-governmental organizations committed to accelerating systemic change towards improved intergenerational well-being outcomes for all in America.
Alliance members are co-creating a common framework for action; adopting shared standards and metrics; assuring a focus on equity; and advancing organizational practice changes, public policies and investment strategies — in service of a broad-based social movement to achieve population-level well-being outcomes in the nation.
Well Being Alliance is a cooperative of the newly formed Well Being In the Nation (WIN) Network, which engages leadership from across the country to confront challenges and enrich health and well-being in a way that is inclusive of everyone. The WIN Network began with a recognition that the legacies of the past have shaped the present, and the decisions made today will shape the legacies inherited by generations in the future.
“These grants enable our partners to innovate and take focused action together in creating the conditions for intergenerational well-being for all,” said Tyler Norris MDiv, chief executive, Well Being Trust, WBA’s first seed-investor. “Alliance members are working arm in arm to bring solutions to the nation’s most vexing health challenges, with a focus on reversing legacies of inequity, and assuring every person has the opportunity to realize their fullest potential.”
The grantees and focus areas are:
Grantee: Social Impact Exchange, Focus: Financing Well-Being
This grant will be used to organize a group of finance leaders to identify several promising initiatives that advance sustainable financing of well-being. These initiatives will then be demonstrated at a federal, state or local level with a broader set of collaborators. The WBA network provides an essential network of stakeholders to collaborate with and help broaden the coalitions to implement this work.
Grantee: Rails to Trails Conservancy, Focus: Developing a Pilot Project for Collaborative and Community-based Transportation Planning
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy will use the grant to develop and advocate for a pilot program to support state Departments of Transportation and Metropolitan Planning Organizations to experiment with new methods and rules regarding public input in the transportation decision-making process. The pilot ultimately will model ways that community engagement can make development of Transportation Improvement Programs (TIPs) and Statewide Transportation Improvement Programs (STIPs) more transparent and accountable to local priorities for reliable, safe, healthy, equitable and convenient mobility options.. The grant will enable Rails-to-Trails to engage partners from the Transportation Equity Caucus and Well-Being Alliance in fleshing out the parameters of this pilot program, to pursue short-term opportunities for federal funding to support the pilot (or identify alternative funding mechanisms) and to identify potential participants.
Grantee: Growth Philanthropy Network, Focus: Place-based Transformation aka “Well-Being City Alliances”
This grant will be used to organize a group of nonprofit leaders to identify several cities where they could all work together in a comprehensive approach to advance well-being. The group would then support local leadership in those cities to implement a transformational well-being agenda with the collective resources and capabilities that they offer. The WBA network provides a network of committed national and regional nonprofit leaders from which we can identify likeminded collaborators who want to test and implement the initiative
Grantee: Prevention Institute, Focus: Coalescing young leaders and organizers on community well-being, health equity, and racial justice
As the impacts of COVID-19 continue to unfold, it is more important than ever to nurture opportunities for young leaders and organizers to have the space and platforms necessary to share their visions and tactics for thriving and equitable communities. Prevention Institute will lead a collaborative planning process to support and connect efforts of young leaders and organizers across wellbeing, health equity, and racial justice. The collaboration will leverage the participation and expertise of Well Being Alliance members who are currently engaging with and supporting young leaders and organizers to build on and strengthen organizational practices that support a new generation of leaders.
Grantee: Social Finance, Focus: Social Determinants Financing Work Group
Social Finance will collaborate with partners in the Well Being Alliance to detail new mechanisms for investing in the social determinants of health, bringing the toolkit developed through Pay for Success contracting to the wider arena of value-based payment reform and community prevention. In parallel, Social Finance will partner with other field leaders to inform how outcomes-based funding can help drive the federal agenda in the lead-up to and following the November election.
Grantee: Transportation for America, Focus: Green and Equitable Recovery
Over the next few weeks, that will be focused on more recovery that would include transit as well as sharing information on implementation of the CARES Act. We just started supporting communicating between CDC in their development of guidance and transit agencies, for example. After that, we will likely move into a stimulus effort.
Grantee: Trust for America’s Health, Focus: The Well Being Working Group Collaborative
The Well Being Working Group is a collaborative that focuses on primary prevention and health equity strategies to address substance misuse, suicide, and mental and emotional distress. It is intentionally composed of representatives who are working to achieve greater health equity from multiple sectors, including public health, mental health parity, substance misuse, suicide prevention, economic mobility, social services, and community-based organizations. Together, the Working Group supports population-level strategies to prevent the initial onset of mental health and addiction challenges by improving the social, physical, and economic conditions in communities
Grantee: American Sustainable Business Council, Focus: Childhood Cancer Prevention Initiative: Safer Chemicals Market + Policy Shifts
The American Sustainable Business Council will be working with the Well Being Alliance members to build the foundation for a strong collaboration to recognize the impact of toxic chemicals in causing childhood cancer and move actions and policies towards safer chemicals, products and healthier environments for our children. We will do this through education, sharing of materials, collaborative dialogues held monthly, social media, and outreach and engagement of diverse constituencies.
