Funding Priority Area

Every Person Deserves to Live a Healthy Life

At Three Arches Foundation, we believe every person deserves to live a healthy life. Recognizing that not everyone has the same opportunities to achieve their best health, we invest in nonprofit organizations that make it easier for individuals and populations considered underserved or impacted by health disparities to access, navigate, understand, and use information and services – available when, where and how they are needed – to take care of their behavioral and physical health. As such, our current funding priority area is significantly aligned with our vision of a vibrant community where every person has equitable access to care.

Why Equitable Access to Care

We have learned that to advance health and well-being, every person must have what they need, when they need it. This requires a subtle but important shift from equal access to equitable access – treating people with different needs differently.

When Access to Care was originally identified as a funding priority for Three Arches Foundation, we considered the diverse health care needs of people throughout Lakewood and surrounding communities, as well as the importance of linkage to care and services. Since then, thanks to ongoing education and learning with our funded partners, we recognize that access to care encompasses many different aspects and to achieve health equity, there must be Equitable Access to Care.

We believe Equitable Access to Care is achieved through recognition and understanding of backgrounds or circumstances that make it difficult for a person to manage their health. Often outside of a person’s control and linked to factors such as socioeconomic status, education level, age, sex, disability, geographical location, race and ethnicity, barriers to care lead to unmet needs including delays in receiving appropriate care and inability to secure preventative services. Ultimately, by reducing, challenging, or overcoming these obstacles, everyone will have a fair and just opportunity to attain their full health potential.

An integral part of the Foundation’s strategy centers on our intent to drive equitable access and opportunity through grantmaking that is thoughtful and impactful. Recognizing there are many ways to support efforts that achieve the “equity” in access to care, our focus is concentrated on individuals and populations considered underserved or impacted by health disparities. Funding is prioritized for programs and services that make it easier for people in Lakewood and surrounding communities to access, navigate, understand, and use information and services – available when, where and how they are needed – to take care of their behavioral and physical health. Here are some examples:

Care Coordination – efforts that synchronize activities and information sharing among all participants concerned with a client’s care. 

Cultural Competency – initiatives that help providers and organizations effectively deliver services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of clients.

Health Literacy – helping clients to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health care decisions and navigate the health care system.

Care at Home – home health care and home care services.

Interpretation Services – efforts that facilitate communication between clients with Limited English Proficiency and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and their health care providers.

Mobile Clinics and Street Medicine – bridging the gap between community health needs and traditional care delivery though medical outreach efforts that meet people’s needs wherever they may be.

Navigation – efforts to engage a patient to determine barriers and make connections with providers and resources that best meets their health care needs, where and when they need it.

Transportation – efforts that remove barriers to access health care due to long travel distances, lack of vehicle, transportation cost and inadequate infrastructure.

Trauma Informed Care – integration of a trauma informed approach and strategies throughout physical and behavioral health care to reduce harmful effects of trauma and violence.

Workforce Development – organizational tools designed to move qualified and eager employees along a health sector career development path.