Through the Hospital Morale Program, Prince Charitable Trusts supports programs designed to improve morale among health care teams in hospital and community-based medical settings. The grant does not support direct work with patients, although one outcome of improved morale should be improved patient care. Rather, the program is about supporting staff and efforts to build their capacity to work effectively together in order to provide quality patient care. The focus may be individual units/departments or organization wide and should involve staff at all levels of the care team in the planning and development of the initiative (from problem identification to program design and implementation to program evaluation) in order to encourage ownership and increased program effectiveness.

The foundation will give preference to proposals that include the following:

1. Care providers working with high risk and/or high morbidity patient populations such as low-income, underserved, terminally ill, HIV-infected, chronically ill, physically disabled, and people who have experienced abuse;

2. Addressing systemic change and/or relationships among all levels of the health care team, including doctors, nurses, social workers, nurses' aides, and administrators.

Morale grants in the past have supported work such as improving hospital and community health center management practices, counseling and support groups for those working on an AIDS ward, research sabbaticals for nurses, and training. Specific areas of concern have included stress management, new skills development, communication skills, and cultural competency training.

Prior to submitting a proposal, grantseekers should discuss their project with one of the Trusts' program officers. Hospital morale proposals will be accepted without regard to calendar deadlines.

The Community Health Center Morale Initiative

In 2000-01, the Health and Medicine Policy Research Group received Prince Charitable Trusts funding to examine staff job satisfaction at Chicago community health centers. The resulting October 2001 report Community Health Center Morale (available online at www.hmprg.org/publications.html) recommended a variety of funding strategies to improve staff morale at these centers, including grants to upgrade information technology and computer functions. In the spring of 2002, a group of leading Chicago community health centers was invited to submit technology proposals for computer hardware and software, training, or consulting expenses to develop information technology systems. Nine projects were selected for funding. (For a list, please see Community Health Center Morale Initiative grantees in PDF lists below.) The foundation anticipates a multi-year relationship with these grantees including a series of conversations that will produce projects to improve staff satisfaction and training. It is the Trusts' hope that strategic investments in these organizations will ultimately lead to better medical care for some of the city's most vulnerable citizens. Unsolicited proposals for this initiative will not be accepted.

Community Health Centers

The foundation makes a small number of general operating grants each year to community health centers that provide basic care to uninsured people.

Selected Health Grants
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