About Us
A Team Committed to Health Equity
Established as the Saint Luke’s Foundation in 1997 as a result of the dissolution of the historic Saint Luke’s Medical Center, the foundation’s mission is to improve and transform the social and physical well-being of individuals and families in the Buckeye-Shaker, Woodhill, and Mt. Pleasant neighborhoods surrounding Saint Luke’s and across Cuyahoga County.
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Our Mission
Achieve health equity by addressing social determinants of health for people in neighborhoods surrounding Saint Luke’s and throughout Cuyahoga County.
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Our Vision
People thrive as a result of living free of racism and poverty and experiencing equitable economic opportunities and conditions that enable them to lead healthier lives.
Our Values
An Enduring Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
At Saint Luke’s Foundation, we:
- Demonstrate and advance fair, just and inclusive policies and practices
- Act with integrity and transparency
- Respect, have compassion for and engage our diverse constituencies
- Build trusting partnerships to leverage resources and achieve better outcomes
- Take informed risks to discover and deploy innovative, sustainable solutions
- Hold ourselves and our grantees accountable for evaluating and continuously learning from our shared efforts and results
Our Approach
Addressing Social Factors That Impact our Health
Our strategy is to support organizations that implement sustainable solutions to address health inequities in the Buckeye-Shaker, Woodhill, and Mt. Pleasant neighborhoods surrounding Saint Luke’s and throughout Cuyahoga County.
We actively respond to the needs of the community and collaborate with our board, staff, local leaders, strategy partners, public sector entities, and advocacy organizations to tackle these pressing issues.
Understanding Health Equity
Working Towards Better Health for Everyone
At the heart of the Saint Luke’s Foundation’s purpose is a commitment to health equity. As defined by the Boston Public Health Commission, health equity is achieved when “everyone has a fair opportunity to live a long, healthy life. It implies that health should not be compromised or disadvantaged because of an individual or group’s race, ethnicity, gender, income, sexual orientation, neighborhood, or other social condition.”
It’s important to recognize that health equity is influenced as much by social, economic, and physical factors as it is by medical factors. We acknowledge that race stands as the biggest predictor of health disparities. Because of historical, institutional, and structural racism, people of color consistently encounter chronic stress and lower health outcomes across a range of diseases and conditions, compromising the well-being of entire communities. This remains true even when considering other aspects like socioeconomic status, education, individual behavior, and health insurance.
Saint Luke’s Foundation deeply understands the influence of race and racism on health disparities and embraces its role in supporting initiatives that address these issues. We are dedicated to supporting local leaders, backing organizations, and investing in efforts to improve the health of families and children.
We focus our funding on education, financial stability, housing stability and safety, social connections, healthy eating and active living, as well as policy and advocacy, prioritizing the Mt. Pleasant, Woodhill, and Buckeye neighborhoods. Through these efforts, our aim is to close health disparities gaps, provide equitable opportunities, dismantle racism, and champion justice.
View our Health Equity Model
Our Guiding Principles
- Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
- Health disparities are differences in health among groups of people
- Health inequities are differences in health that are unfair, unjust and avoidable
- Overt and implicit racism must be confronted to reduce health and socio-economic disparities
RACIAL EQUITY DECLARATION
Racial Equity is Health Equity
Equity is achieved when race is not a predictor of individual, organizational, or community success.
The Saint Luke’s Foundation accepts responsibility to advance true equity. We are committed to restoring and sharing power by examining and improving our internal and external processes. Through our work, we will challenge systems to unlock equitable opportunity and promote justice.
Our History
A Track Record of Change
Annual Reports
To view our annual reports, please select the year from the dropdown below: