Why Success Often Starts With Failure
Imagine this scenario: it’s Monday and John Smith waits to be released from the county jail. In his hand, he holds confirmation of a medical appointment for Tuesday that someone from a community-based organization arranged for him, anticipating he will get the medical treatment he needs. John is HIV positive.
What a great thing, right? We just linked John to clinical care, something he wouldn’t otherwise have had access to or information about, given that he is just returning to his community.
But John doesn’t have the bus fare to get to his medical appointment. He will be released with the clothes he was wearing when he was arrested last summer — shorts and flip-flops. It’s now 10 degrees and snowing. He has been told that Monday was his scheduled release date, but it turns out he won’t be released until Wednesday, which is after his scheduled doctor’s appointment.
Often in philanthropy, our intention as grantmakers is to design and support systems to set people up for success. In reality, we frequently do not spend sufficient time listening to people about what is currently setting them up for failure. John’s story is a clear and true example of how existing systems – and grantmakers - could potentially fail to help him.
While his name is fictionalized in this scenario, “John’s” story is real. It was shared by The Fortune Society, a grassroots, community-based organization and grantee in Kaiser Permanente’s “HIV-AIDS Community Test and Treat" national philanthropic and evaluation initiative. Begun in 2013, the initiative was designed to focus on innovative, community-based efforts linking people with HIV to clinical care, with an emphasis on socially vulnerable populations at disproportionate risk for HIV — such as those currently or previously incarcerated, men who have sex with men, transgender women, African American women, and substance using populations.
The Fortune Society’s innovative approach ensures individuals receive a systems-connected discharge plan, linkage to HIV clinical care, food security and case management immediately upon re-entry into the community.
Whether funding at the neighborhood, city/town or national/international levels, it is important for grantmakers to be as informed as we can be about process as well as data. And ways to be as effective as we can in addressing issues that we care about. For Kaiser Permanente, that meant taking a step back from the clinical data to look at systems and local human service agencies that are engaged in improving community health. We needed to hear and see the bigger picture in order to understand the best use of our resources and expertise.
Alexandra Caraballo is National Manager, Philanthropy at Kaiser Permanente. Dinah Dittman is National Director, Community Engagement & Philanthropy at Kaiser Permanente and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foundations
