2007 is also RCHF’s first decade as an autonomous entity from Riverside Community Hospital. Looking back, there are significant achievements which deserve mentioning: we built 2 clinics, launched Health-in-Motion, significantly extended health education to young children, teens, seniors, and women as well as men, through gender-tailored programs. Miles of Smiles, our dental sealant initiative is now available in 25 elementary schools. During the past ten years, RCHF has overall supported some 80 non-profit organizations within the City of Riverside, as well as dispersed about $35 million of grants and programs back into the community. We have built up our core supporting constituencies, as reflected through their involvement in our Golf and Gala fundraising events, as well as in various volunteering and Board participation opportunities. We have demonstrated sound fiscal responsibility, growing the Foundation’s endowment to $89 million and have raised about $5.5 million in grant writing. Through it all, RCHF has become a lead agency for the underserved and the uninsured in the City of Riverside.

 

Although much has been done, this is no time to sleep on our laurels. As we enter the next decade, we recognize that the compounded impact of the current healthcare crisis, the looming economic recession and the complexities of demographic change call for yet higher levels of innovative reflection, effective resource allocation, and new models of partnerships. Solutions for the systemic scope of some of the daunting obstacles ahead, beckon for the development of sustainable ecologies of healthcare delivery which seek to integrate multiple providers, operating in different, yet complementary ways. Now, more than ever, health education and prevention are of crucial importance to harness the financial toll of chronic diseases. We are ready, with your help and support, to step up to the challenge, as together we seek to improve the health of our city.