At Health Net of West Michigan, we are committed to empowering our staff and community to participate in every election as a vital form of advocacy.  While we uphold the values of the democratic process and acknowledge the recent election results, we absolutely refuse to compromise on our vision for health equity, our commitment to become an antiracist organization, and our WE CARE values that support that vision.

We affirm to our staff and community that everyone has the right to reach the highest level of health, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to have access to the resources they need to not only survive but thrive. Health Net of West Michigan stands to support, uplift, and advocate for those who have been historically marginalized due to race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, documentation status, and country of origin. We are dedicated to honoring the personhood and worth of all our neighbors, partners, and employees, and we stand firmly by these principles regardless of the political climate. We stand by our values to treat all we interact with, in any capacity, with compassion and empower them with the knowledge and tools they deserve to reach their goals.

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The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has pledged to provide a $9 million Medicaid match to launch a new Health Equity Project in five Michigan counties.

The Health Equity Project aims to help these counties reduce health disparities associated with pressing social needs such as housing instability, food insecurity, transportation, health system complexity, and other socioeconomic factors by:

• supporting efforts to connect people from historically disadvantaged populations to needed social services,
• sharing data between relevant health and social service providers to facilitate improved care,
• providing population-based data and informatics to analysts, stakeholders, and policymakers, and
• better engaging with, and reflecting on the views of, community members with lived experience.

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Our vision at Health Net of West Michigan is: “Creating a community where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.” Throughout the past few weeks, there have been significant challenges to that vision amplifying the need for us to continue to work toward achieving racial justice and dismantling oppressive systems to ensure health equity. We have been informed of threats to public education access, diversity, equity and inclusion training, investigations surrounding forced sterilizations of migrant women, and the egregious lack of police accountability in communities across the country. For these reasons and more, we cannot remain silent, and thus complicit, about the adverse health implications these events continue to have on our nation and our community.

We cannot move health equity forward without the support of our community. We call on our friends, family members, partners, and those in public service to invest in our health, wellbeing, and safety by honoring statements made in support of social justice. We call on others to take actionable steps by amplifying the voices of leaders of color, encouraging our neighbors to vote, contacting local, state, and national leaders about the topics that they are passionate about, and engaging in support of changes in policies. Each of us can participate in localized efforts to influence community planning efforts like focus groups, community listening sessions, community-wide surveys and engaging in groups focused on social justice.

We affirm to our staff and our community that we believe EVERYONE has the right to be healthy and that EVERYONE includes all who live in our service area, especially those who have been historically marginalized and targeted due to race, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression and country of origin. We affirm that no person is illegal and that Black Lives Matter. We practice this by valuing the personhood, dignity and worth of all our neighbors, partners and employees. We are committed to upholding these tenets despite the world around us. We stand as your partner in health and humanity and will continue to serve and fight alongside our neighbors in community.

A $75,000 partnership grant between Delta Dental Insurance, Health Net of West Michigan, and the Kent County Oral Health Coalition will work to increase awareness and access to dental services for individuals with Healthy Kids Dental coverage. The efforts in this partnership aim to help increase utilization rates and ensure that Kent County youth receive the dental care they need to lead healthy lives.

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In 2017 we completed our first full annual grantmaking cycle, awarding more than $26 million across our five major initiatives. We’re now a valuable source of funding for organizations across Michigan, supporting fresh ideas and proven models with the potential to benefit people and communities throughout our state. We’ve established our place in Michigan’s philanthropic landscape, building partnerships and addressing health and wellness needs that we’re uniquely equipped to tackle. And even as we hit our stride, we’re not resting. With our partners, we are constantly looking to adopt ideas and best practices that will increase the impact of our funding.

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