Message from Board Chair
and Chief Executive Officer

Dear Partners in Health:

We are pleased to share our 2017 Annual Report: Building Layers of Wellness that includes an accounting of the Health Foundation’s financial resources and the impact that these resources have made on health in our region.

• We invested more than $9 million working with 83 organizations across five priority areas: Healthy Eating and Active Living, Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention, Mental Health and Emotional Well-being, Healthy Kids and Health Leadership to improve health in the region.
• We continued support for special initiatives like the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center-El Paso Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine and the Paso del Norte Institute for Healthy Living.
• We saw significant gains in support for mental and behavioral health coming out of the 2017 Texas Legislative session. We partnered with the University of Texas at El Paso’s new Empower Change: Paso del Norte Center for Mental Health and Emotional Well-being to work with the El Paso Behavioral Health Consortium, Wellness Coalition in Las Cruces, and ROTMENAS coalition in Ciudad Juárez to improve mental health systems and reduce the negative bias associated with mental illness.
• We expanded grantmaking in out of school time programs working with the United Way and community-based organizations like Creative Kids, FEMAP Foundation, CASA Ciudad Juárez, and Boys and Girls Clubs of El Paso and Las Cruces.
• We celebrated the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the Smokefree Ordinance by the City of El Paso - the first in Texas - which has contributed to the reduction in smoking rates from 24% to 13% and a correlating decrease in lung disease. We applauded the adoption of a new Smokefree Ordinance this year by the City of Anthony.
• We partnered with the Alcohol Impact Network to support a grassroots effort that led to the adoption by the City of El Paso of the first Social Host Ordinance in Texas designed to reduce binge drinking among youth.
• We awarded a $2.5 million grant to the Paso del Norte Charitable Foundation to oversee the construction of 3.4 miles of the Playa Drain Trail from Ascarate Park to Riverside High School following a series of public meetings to get input from area residents on the design and amenities for the trail, in partnership with the City of El Paso Parks and Recreation Department and El Paso Water. We engaged Sites Southwest/Alta Design to begin a larger trail planning project to establish the route for a 60-mile recreational trail across El Paso county.
• We welcomed 20 health leaders in the 4th REALIZE Executive – an intensive nine-month leadership development program designed to strengthen leadership capabilities. We partnered with the United Way to implement REALIZE Board, which included the 2nd Annual REALIZE Board Summit with a focus on fundraising and on-going governance training for nonprofit boards.

The Health Foundation ended the year with $241.7 million in assets, up from $130 million in 1996, keeping administrative expenses below 1% of foundation assets and bringing total grantmaking since inception to nearly $164 million. We worked with the Paso del Norte Charitable Foundation and Fundación Paso del Norte para la Salud y Bienester in Ciudad Juárez to inspire and leverage philanthropy in our region.

Building layers of wellness is a team effort and we extend our sincere thanks to our extraordinary team of board members, volunteers, staff, grantees and community partners who work with us on a daily basis to ensure that the residents of our region have the knowledge, resources and skills to live healthy lives.