Story by STEVE TRAIMAN
Photos courtesy of Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg
The Foundation for a Healthy St Petersburg has roots going back more than a century to 1906 when a 15-bed clinic was built to serve as St. Petersburg’s first centralized health care facility. Soon after, the five-room Good Samaritan Hospital was built and by 1910 the city had raised $10,000 in bond issues to build a 22-bed facility called Augusta Memorial. The former Good Samaritan Hospital became a separate facility to serve the city’s African-American community.
In 1923, the hospital became known as Mound Park Hospital, eventually with 725 beds, making it one of the finest hospitals in the southeastern United States at the time. In 1968, the city exited the hospital business and leased the then-existing facilities to Bayfront Medical Center, Inc., a private, not-for-profit organization, renaming the hospital, “Bayfront Medical Center.”
Development continued in the mid-1980s with a new emergency and trauma center, new intensive care, neurology and cardiac care units, and a new obstetrics program with perinatal and nursery facilities. In the years to come, Bayfront earned a Level II emergency/trauma center designation and implemented the Bayflite Emergency Helicopter Transport System. Today, the Bayflite program services 13 counties and is the only Medical Flight program in the southeastern United States to carry blood.
In early 2013, Bayfront Health Systems, Inc., entered into a strategic partnership with Health Management Associates (HMA). After changing its name to Bayfront Health Education and Research Organization, Inc., it sold substantially all of the assets of the hospital and its related health care facilities to a newly formed company named Bayfront HMA Healthcare Holdings, LLC. HMA owned 80% of that company (through affiliates) and Bayfront Health Education and Research Organization, Inc. (through a subsidiary) owns 20%. HMA assumed management of the hospital, which was then re-named “Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.”
In early 2014, Community Health Systems, Inc., one of the nation’s leading operators of general acute care hospitals, acquired HMA and its affiliates and subsidiaries, and took over HMA’s management responsibilities and 80% interest in ownership. From the very beginning, the hospital has had a rich history of service to the community, annually providing many millions of dollars in charity care.
In March 2015, Bayfront Health Education and Research Organization, Inc., renamed itself as Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg, Inc. The Foundation was converted from a public charity to a private health foundation, with Randall H. Russell as president and CEO. It has more than $180 million to fund its mission and is the largest grantmaking foundation in St. Petersburg.
Russell heads a professional staff that includes Shannon Kalahar, Communications Manager; Kyandra Darling, Communications & Engagement Specialist; Keesha Benson, PhD, Director of Learning; Marcus Brooks, Community Engagement; Harold Bryant, Facilities & Events Coordinator; Belinda Childs, Controller; Gaylynn Driver, Office Administrator; Roxanne Fixer, Chief Activation Officer; Nathan Gil, Systems & Data Administrator; Carl Lavender Jr., Chief Equity Officer; Carol Martin Brown, Chief Financial & Administrative Officer; Carmen Price Carrillo, Operations Coordinator; Julie Rocco, Director of Strategic Investments; and Kewa Wright, Senior Administrator.
A dedicated Board of Trustees is headed by Dr. Katurah Jenkins-Hall, Chair; with Dorrie Peterson, ScD, MHS, Vice-chair; Emery Ivery, secretary; Sharon Gardner, treasurer; Marianne Edmonds, Rev. Kenneth Irby, Kelly Kirschner, and Lorna Taylor.
Mission & Key Services . . .
“The Foundation’s focus and mission are to improve the health and well-being of our community,” President/CEO Russell told Paradise News. “This has been accomplished through initiatives that create sustainable, long-term improvements to quality of life – thus expanding its more than a century-old legacy of serving the community.
“Advancing race equity to improve health in Pinellas County is a community-wide endeavor. Many have been working at it for years, others are coming to the issue with fresh curiosity and much to learn. Wherever you are on the journey – from basic awareness to seasoned activist – the Foundation is a community resource to support you. “The energy and opportunity of this moment are remarkable –let’s make it count! Although the circumstances of COVID-19 have disrupted our lives and required adjustments to our work, the basic five categories of Foundation investment below remain consistent.”
Equity Movement Building through empowering a healthier, more equitable community through inspiration, skills and action via Speakers Who Inspire lecture series, Courageous Conversation about race seminar, and strategic communications to shift understanding of race, poverty, health equity and social change … Convening People for Solutions by supporting people and organizations across sectors to change systems and solve problems including HIV/AIDS, housing, education … Equitable economic development and community food systems … Research & Data for Health Equity by understanding community health and health disparities, listening to and cataloging community needs, commissioning research about health and equity in Pinellas County, publishing and disseminating research data, and studying the impact of policy on people … Grantmaking & Capacity Building by investing in programs and projects to improve community health and equity through grants to nonprofits serving south Pinellas County, grants to multi-year collaborative initiatives to change systems, and nonprofit training and technical support.
Foundation Accomplishments . . .
President/CEO Randy Russell told Paradise News, “The FHSP embraces a mission of race equity as the surest means of achieving health equity and improved population health overall. We’re proud of our work surrounding Equity Education as from November 2016 to February 2020, an estimated 2,600 attended our ‘Speakers Who Inspire and Courageous Conversation’ events.
“Since our initial launch in 2015 we graduated from ‘traditional grantmaking’ to ‘making strategic investments to advance systems change, specifically in the realm of race equity.’ From 2015-2017, 51,861 were reached within the sphere of Social Determinants of Health, a $3.7-million-dollar investment.”
Foundation staff provided a sampling of successes from 2015-2017: Disabled persons helped with permanent and movable ramps for rental units, permanent homes and vertical porches for permanent homes; Methadone program for mothers, with 134 individuals receiving methadone treatments, counseling and support coupled with family case management; Lealman-Family Dream Center – two vans provided over 1,000 residents in poverty transportation in one year, with vans now used for service for COVID testing and vaccinations; Reached 6,000 South St. Pete residents through events focused on Community Navigation highlighting available services previously unknown by residents; Bought a new walk-in cooler and freezer, two refrigerated box trucks, two forklifts and two pallet jacks for St. Pete Free Clinic, expanding their capacity to serve people by 400%; Healthy Schools for Healthy Children – worked with Pinellas County School District to update teacher practice and expand physical activity with increases in grades for prior lower-performing students, reaching 45,000 students in 61 schools.
A sampling of successes from 2017-2019 includes: Strategic shifts – listening showed that capacity support was needed to help manage grants regarding evaluation of hiring needs, financial, program delivery and goals and objectives. This influenced the Foundation’s Capacity Building effort to help support dozens of nonprofits and their boards. The Foundation also recognized that race equity data collection was needed. It launched “convening” sessions among providers, funders and learning partners including a shift in funding to BIPOC-led organizations, funded master class facilitation classes, invested in the Equity Atlas and Community Health Needs Assessment with the Health Department, education reports, Housing Scan, Health/Race Equity Supplemental Report and began requiring disaggregated race data collection. This led to 2017=29 grants, 2018=21 grants, and 2019=41 mini grants ($5,000 each to 100% BIPOC-led).
The 2018-2020 empowerment grants reached 23,819 individuals (from 74% of agencies reported numbers); Assisted with legal services for people facing eviction, enabling more than 300 families to maintain housing; Civics Education – South Pinellas Youth were trained to advocate and published St. Pete Civic Health Index including race equity; League of Women Voters– financial literacy for immigrants (predominantly LatinX) was provided to 500 families through Project Prosper; Increased the ability for funded partner organizations to fundraise more effectively resulting in approximately 1,000,000 new dollars in fundraising by smaller nonprofits; 24 Head Start and Early Head Start centers in St. Pete received counseling and support to increase care and outcomes for children through improved care of staff and leaders; 150 Jordan Park residents were supported through after-school tutoring and weekend activities through the Police Athletic League; Through the Lighthouse of Pinellas, over 80 persons with serious mental illness employed; and Pinellas County Homeless Leadership Board collaborated with eight agencies allowing for a “housing first” model instead of using shelters as the first place of residence for homeless persons. The foundation strongly supported the St Pete2020 goals and will continue its support for the StPete2050 initiative.
Looking Ahead . . .
Praising the Foundation, Mayor Rick Kriseman said, “The City of St. Petersburg appreciates the work of the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg and anticipates our partnership with them making a difference in our community for generations to come. There is much work to do to build a healthier, more equitable society.”
President/CEO Randy Russell emphasized, “We thank the mayor for his continuing support of our work. Improving outcomes for all by creating positive social change is a key initiative at the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg and we believe that prioritizing race equity to achieve health equity improves health for all.
“We approach these inequities in our community by not only evaluating the latest data, but by also bringing together the people who are affected by systems change as well as those truly motivated to change the systems. For those of us who have experienced race or class privilege, the time has come to use the same passion and fervor we’ve previously engaged to protect ourselves to also lift others.”
[Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Julie Capobianco, Vistra Consulting; President/CEO Randy Russell and Shannon Kalahar, FHSP; and Mayor Rick Kriseman, for their excellent information, photos and comments.]
[Feature editor Steve Traiman is president of Creative Copy by Steve Traiman, providing professional business writing services since 1993. He can be reached via email to traimancreativecopy@gmail.com or by phone to 727-363-7531.]