St. David’s Foundation Invests $16 Million to Support Community-driven Change and Access to Care

Catalyzing Community-Led Change: $9.8 million 
Healthcare Safety Net: Sector-Wide Support: $2.9 million 
Culturally Responsive Care: $1.4 million 
Strengthening the Ecosystem for Birth Equity: $1.2 million 
Voter Education and Election Protection: $700,000 

St. David’s Foundation has awarded $16 million in grants to 35 organizations dedicated to advancing community-driven change and improving access to care in Central Texas. This investment underscores the Foundation’s commitment to supporting communities with the greatest health needs and to influencing the practices, policies, and systems that benefit them. 

Timely, responsive care remains out of reach for many Central Texans, limiting their ability to address health concerns effectively. High cost of care and the lack of culturally competent, high-quality care remain major barriers in our region. Learn more about each funding opportunity below:

Catalyzing Community-Led Change 

St. David’s Foundation believes that lasting change is driven by communities themselves, and that community-led networks with strong resident leadership is central to improving health and well-being of our region. Earlier this year, the Foundation launched the Catalyzing Community-Led Change funding opportunity with a goal of investing in community-led networks and organizations across Central Texas that are supporting resident leadership in communities facing the greatest health challenges.

The Foundation received 167 letters of intent and invited 94 of those submissions to complete a full application. After review, the Foundation awarded $9.8 million to 19 organizations — nine of which are first-time grantees. These investments will directly train an estimated 1,880 resident leaders as they work to strengthen connections among locally rooted networks to improve health.

“We believe communities already have the knowledge, experience, and leadership to create change,” said Abena Asante, Senior Program Officer, St. David’s Foundation. “Our role is to build on that strength, support their leadership, and help create the conditions for lasting change.”

Among the cohort of grantees, rural communities are well represented with 12 of the 19 grantees primarily serving rural areas. These organizations and their networks reach populations that have historically faced barriers to accessing and influencing public institutions due to systemic exclusion, fear, and language or cultural challenges. They also contend with structural obstacles, such as limited transportation, underdeveloped infrastructure, and fewer philanthropic resources.

This effort will ensure residents have the resources, influence, and power to improve health in ways that reflect their community’s priorities and act collectively on shared issues that support civic health. More details on the Catalyzing Community-Led Change open call, including a data snapshot and a full list of grantees, are available here.  

Healthcare Safety Net: Sector-Wide Support 

To ensure that every Central Texan has access to quality care, the Foundation is supporting the safety net sector to serve communities with the greatest needs. The Foundation is investing $2.9M into nine organizations to strengthen the healthcare safety net across Central Texas so that it can be more stable, effective, and adaptable to change and challenges. 

As many Central Texans are navigating public assistance during these uncertain times, the Healthcare Safety Net: Sector-Wide Support grants will help strengthen the resilience of safety net providers. These grants will increase the number of un/underserved Texans receiving health services and the percentage of safety net sites applying best practices. Grant recipients are: 

• ASHwell 
• Lone Star Circle of Care 
• Manos de Cristo 
• My Texas My Health 
• People’s Community Clinic  
• Smithville Community Clinic  
• Texas Association of Charitable Clinics  
• Texas Association of Community Health Centers  
• Volunteer Healthcare Clinic  

Culturally Responsive Care  

For many Central Texans, access to care is only part of the equation. Improving health outcomes also requires care that is high-quality, patient-centered, and culturally responsive. Culturally responsive care recognizes that people’s culture, identity, and lived experiences shape how they understand, access, and experience care. It helps address barriers such as stigma, discrimination, fear, and mistrust related to race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, age, and other aspects of identity.

By building trust and strengthening the connection between patients and providers, culturally responsive care can lead to better health outcomes. To help address this gap, St. David’s Foundation is investing $1.4 million across four organizations working to ensure that populations facing the greatest barriers receive the care they need.

Together, these organizations are expected to directly serve an estimated 4,460 individuals and will help sustain access to critical services during a period of significant service cuts and increased health burdens, particularly for marginalized communities. The funding will help expand the use of patient-centered, culturally responsive practices within the Central Texas safety net. Grant recipients are:​

• African American Youth Harvest Foundation
• Black Men’s Health Clinic 
• Santa Maria Hostel 
• VELA 

Healthy Births, Healthy Communities: Strengthening the Ecosystem for Birth Equity  

Across our nation, significant racial disparities exist in maternal health. In Texas, Black mothers experience serious, unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery at twice the rate of their white counterparts. St. David’s Foundation has made longstanding investments to address these disparities. The Foundation currently supports over 20 organizations across five counties to provide culturally responsive, community informed perinatal health support.
 
To help create a more effective, culturally responsive system of care for mothers, the Foundation is investing $1.2 million to support policy and advocacy work that will complement our community-based efforts. These new investments will ensure that lived experience and community wisdom will be harnessed to generate policy solutions that improve maternal health outcomes.

“The work among these grantees reflects complementary policy, advocacy, and regional coordinating efforts within the maternal health ecosystem,” said Andrew Levack, Senior Program Officer, St. David’s Foundation. “We look forward to these new grant partners helping elevate and amplify the important work of organizations we already support. Their combined and coordinated efforts can ultimately improve and transform maternal health care in Central Texas.” Grant recipients are:

• Austin Public Health 
• Healthy Futures of Texas 
• Texans Care for Children

Central Texas Voter Education and Election Protection  

Communities’ ability to advance their own health priorities depends on their ability to shape the policies and systems that affect their lives, making equitable access to voting a critical component of community voice, power, and ultimately health equity. To strengthen nonpartisan voter education and election protection infrastructure across our five-county Central Texas region, St. David’s Foundation is investing $700,000 through a grant to The Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP). Funding will help to ensure Central Texans have the nonpartisan information and support needed to exercise their right to vote, with particular focus on historically marginalized communities.

TCRP will serve as an intermediary to regrant $500,000 of the funds awarded to ten trusted locally rooted organizations in our five-county region to increase outreach and support for voters in communities with the greatest health needs. The remaining $200,000 of the funds will support TCRP’s election protection work, including coordination of nonpartisan poll monitoring and voter protection efforts in Central Texas.