2020 End of Year Letter
December 15, 2020
Hello KAF partners!
What a year! This has certainly been a tough road for so many, and as 2020 finally comes to a close, I wanted to reflect a bit on this unprecedented time. Despite the very bumpy path, I am excited about what we’ve accomplished together. The Katz Amsterdam Foundation and Charitable Trust truly honors your partnership. We are so grateful for the work you do to improve mental and behavioral health services in your community.
It has been quite a year for everyone – so many challenges, and so many innovative approaches to meet those challenges. We have been so impressed at the efforts across our mountain communities. With this letter, I wanted to recap what we’ve been up to in 2020 – much of which you likely know, but there may be some surprises too.
Katz Amsterdam Charitable Trust Grants
In 2019, we added 3 additional grant cycles because of the extraordinary impacts of COVID-19. At the beginning of April, Katz Amsterdam Charitable Trust granted $1.5M to organizations in each of our mountain communities to help provide food and basic needs to those who were struggling as a result of the pandemic, and an additional $1M to the Epic Promise Foundation to help Vail Resorts employees manage through difficult times.
As the country’s focus turned to the social and racial inequities that have existed for too long in our society, KACT engaged through grants to national organizations such as the Equal Justice Initiative ($500,000) and Know Your Rights Camp ($500,000), and E for All, based in Longmont, Colorado ($150,000); and KACT provided $1M to Tulane University School of Medicine to expand and improve COVID-19 testing for vulnerable populations.
We were disappointed when we had to put our youth access to winter sports initiative on hold this year. Knowing these urban and diverse youth and their communities had been impacted greatly by COVID- 19, we transitioned, and provided $1.5M in general operating funds to our youth program partners across North America. Having these organizations determine how to best serve their kids made the most sense during these challenging times. We hope that we will be able to launch the winter sports access program, in partnership with Vail Resorts, during the 2021-22 season.
Just last week we announced $2.2 million in mental and behavioral health grants across mountain communities for the fourth year. We are impressed with the innovative ideas proposed from so many and are hopeful these programs can have real impact for those in need. And, as the pandemic continues to create tremendous challenges for so many, we will also provide another $1.1 million in COVID relief grants before the end of 2020.
Behavioral and Mental Health
Enabling Cross-Mountain Community Learning
We could not have been more excited to welcome Betsy as our Network Director at the beginning of 2020. Her experience in mountain communities coupled with her background in behavioral health has been a tremendous asset to the entire network. Under her leadership, we hosted almost 20 network sessions, including those focused on behavioral health topics and others supporting each other during the onset of the pandemic.
Betsy developed different ways for communities to connect with each other and for the shared learnings to stay current, including the shared drive and Network News. The shared drive does not yet seem to be as helpful as we hoped, so we’ll continue to evaluate what you and others most need.
One of the most exciting elements for me this year is being able to really launch our collective Shared Measurement Framework. This took months of collaboration to create, and as communities began to collect data from different sources, it began to be relevant as a shared learning tool. We learned a lot about all the different types of data, and what we hope to improve, and I look forward to seeing how this tool helps us all determine needed programs and evaluate progress in years to come.
Catalyzing Collaboration
As you know, at our core we believe in collaboration, and we hope to encourage it at every level. We believe collective effort is how sustainable efforts are built. We were thrilled that several communities joined others in working to build community collaborations to focus on behavioral system mapping and strategic planning. Seeing communities leverage the learnings of others was inspiring.
Innovative Programs
While COVID-19 dramatically challenged all of us, it also forced some creative and innovative thinking. With ideas from several community members, we facilitated three different projects in 2020.
Created together with four communities, Part of our Nature is an anti-stigma campaign designed to use this pandemic moment, when mental health is front and center, to encourage folks to seek the help they need. It has been launched in communities through social and traditional media.
KACT provided a grant to the University of Colorado Johnson Depression Center to develop a volunteer peer support program that launched in several communities in November. Peer support services are an effective piece of the behavioral health system, and we hope, can really increase capacity of services for those in need.
Betsy also convened a group to create a provider education series that launches this week. Together the group will host 4 sessions on different treatment topics, open to all providers in the mountain communities, who can also receive CEUs for attendance.
Social Justice and Inclusion
Rob and Elana have tremendous passion for social justice and helping to ensure respect, human dignity and opportunity for all. As a Foundation, we welcomed the recognition by so many across the country that together we need to address the racial injustices Americans face every day. We are excited that some in our communities are beginning to talk about what this effort might look like in our own small mountain regions. We look forward to engaging in these efforts to promote inclusion and diversity.
Looking towards 2021, I am very excited about a few different programs on the horizon. Eagle and Summit Counties in Colorado have embarked together to create an evaluation framework that will help them understand what community efforts best meet the needs of residents. Several communities are focused on launching or continuing to build crisis response units, and there is great focus on how to improve services and provider capacity for more vulnerable populations. At the Foundation, we plan to choose an important behavioral health problem, facilitate national “deep dive” research, and bring ideas and innovative solutions back to our mountain communities. And, of course, we plan to Convene (still virtually) in May – you should receive a save the date shortly!
Thank you for your amazing efforts this year. We are proud of what we’ve accomplished, and hope that it has helped you serve those in need in your community. We look forward to striving together to build healthier and more vibrant communities.
In Partnership,
Beth Ganz
Executive Director
Katz Amsterdam Foundation