Care for the Homeless

A key goal of NYHealth’s Empowering Health Care Consumers priority area is to ensure that people have the tools, resources, and support they need to make informed decisions about their health care.

As the only statewide health foundation in New York, NYHealth can play a leadership role in building the field of leaders and changemakers working across the State to empower health care consumers. For organizations already engaged in this work, attending conferences and other convenings provides an opportunity to share their successes and lessons learned. Conference attendance can also encourage new actors to enter the field and incorporate consumer empowerment into their work. Yet, because of a lack of resources, many are often unable to attend. Through its Sponsoring Conference Participation Related to Empowering Health Care Consumers Request for Proposals, NYHealth is sponsoring nonprofit or low-resourced organizations to attend or present at local, State, and national conferences related to empowering health care consumers. In 2017, NYHealth awarded Care for the Homeless (CFH) a grant to participate in this initiative.

With NYHealth funding, CFH sent two staff members to attend the 2017 National Health Care for the Homeless Conference and Policy Symposium in Washington, D.C. Conference attendees are formerly homeless individuals who have experience accessing the health care system while homeless and now advocate for health care-related policies that affect homeless individuals and families. Attendance at this conference bolstered the advocates’ knowledge of national policies on homelessness and empowered them to successfully continue the advocacy work. In addition, the advocates used the knowledge gained from the conference to inform CFH’s policy work and health care access model.