– A new community-wide initiative focused on ending homelessness by addressing social determinants of health has launched in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
– For the first time in the state, healthcare and social service providers will collaborate on Signify Health’s outcomes-proven social determinants of health platform, Signify Community, to address the social needs of at-risk individuals, connecting them to community programs that contribute to homelessness, such as employment, financial stability, and access to healthy food and transportation.
Community Rebuilders, a nonprofit housing agency committed to ending homelessness, in partnership with Signify Health, a leading provider of tech-enabled products and services that connects people to the support they need has announced the launch of a coordinated care network named Gather Resources & Align Community Effort (G.R.A.C.E ) to address homelessness and other non-medical health needs in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
SDOH-Driven Approach to Address Homelessness
Signify Health’s outcomes-proven social determinants of health (SDOH) solution, Signify Community, worked closely with Community Rebuilders to bring together more than a dozen social service agencies onto the network, with many more planned in the coming months. For the first time, healthcare and social service providers will be able to safely collaborate around the needs of each at-risk individual, connecting them to community programs that address the contributors of homelessness, such as employment, discrimination, financial stability and access to healthy food and transportation.
Community Rebuilders chose Signify Community as their preferred collaboration platform due to its unique ability and track record of proving social and clinical outcomes. This is made possible by Signify Community’s one-of-a-kind privacy framework that prioritizes client consent and incorporates all state and federal information-sharing laws into the platform.
Signify Health partners with leading health plans, healthcare providers, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and technology companies to improve quality of life by providing comprehensive clinical and social care where and when it’s needed most.
Health and community participants can now safely share information, coordinate services, and build shared social records that stay with people over time, across settings, and can be connected back to quality, satisfaction, and financial outcomes.
Impact of Initiative
“One homeless family is too many. We must accelerate innovation and be creative while taking an evidence-based approach to ending homelessness,” said Vera Beech, Executive Director of Community Rebuilders. “Signify Community allows us to utilize the expertise of cross-sector organizations, share information across all our community partners, and prove our impact on ending homelessness and improving health outcomes.”
Community Rebuilders Background
Community Rebuilders, a local non-profit housing agency and recipient of the Bezos Day One Fund, Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos’ philanthropic initiative, has brought together over a dozen social service agencies in the area to better serve those struggling with homelessness. Their Housing First mission uses an evidence-based approach to provide homeless families and individuals with housing quickly, as well as provide services during their transition. In 2019, Community Rebuilders provided housing for 864 households, 381 homeless families with children, 850 homeless children, and 285 homeless veterans.
