Community health centers and primary-care associations have until next week to apply for innovation awards for projects that highlight health center successes in:

• Advancing innovations in the delivery of primary care.
• Addressing the social determinants of health.
• And/or building healthy communities.

Four awards of up to $25,000 each will be made as part of a National Summit on Community Health Center Lending and Innovation.

Focused on the role of community health centers and community development financial institutions in the advancement of health care innovations in low-income communities, the two-day summit takes place in September in the Detroit area.

Cosponsored by The Kresge Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, Opportunity Finance Network, and NCB Capital Impact, the gathering is intended to begin to unlock innovations at the frontiers of community health and community development finance institutions that will help produce healthy communities.

To help ground and stimulate discussion on innovations in community-based health care, Kresge has authorized NCB Capital Impact to initiate a request-for-proposals process that will result in awards of unrestricted grants to community health centers and primary-care associations.

Organizations selected to receive the awards will have an opportunity to showcase their innovation through an interactive case study presentation and discussion at the summit. The intent is to drive learning and inspire creative collaboration.

Organizers seek to celebrate successes and learn from others’ experience, and encourage a broad range of entrants that represent various innovations in health care.

Summit participants will include philanthropic and other funding organizations, community development finance institutions (or CDFIs), community health centers, the San Francisco and Detroit Federal Reserve Banks, primary-care associations, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration, National Association of Community Health Centers, and other organizations interested in new approaches in health care delivery and addressing the social determinants of health.

Historically, very few CDFIs have committed significant lending to community health centers.

Recently, however, several CDFIs have begun to recognize the important work of these health centers and the opportunity to support their work through financing facility projects.

Beyond facility lending, collaborations between CDFIs and health centers present opportunities for both to go beyond their respective core capabilities – financing and primary care – and extend their reach and impact on community health.

Kresge’s participation is led by its Social Investment Practice and Health Program, which hope to increase capacity within the CDFI market to lend to health centers and identify replicable models of integrated health and other community service.

Information about the summit and the innovation award application is available via the Capital Link, which is collaborating with NCB Capital Impact on the effort. Applications will be accepted through 5 p.m. Pacific Time, July 20, 2012.