Funding Opportunity:
Funding Opportunity: Long-term Services and Supports – Colorado Linkage Lab Program

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The goal of this program is to promote integration between the health care sector (hospitals, insurers, health care providers) and long-term services and supports (LTSS) community-based organizations that provide day-to-day support to older adults and individuals with disabilities in Colorado. The Affordable Care Act has created new care financing and delivery opportunities, including Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), Medical/Health Homes, Community-based Care Transition Programs, the Dual Eligible Integration Pilots and more. To maximize the benefit of some of these new models in Colorado, we believe it is critical to have strong linkages between the services provided in the medical settings and the LTSS provided by community-based organizations.

Applications for this funding opportunity were accepted by invite only.

Grant Deadline: Not accepting applications. This work is in progress.

Part of the Foundation’s three-year LTSS initiative launched in February 2013, this program, Colorado Linkage Lab, aims to help LTSS community-based organizations create linkages with their local health care sector. Replicating a program supported by the SCAN Foundation, Colorado Linkage Lab will achieve this by developing LTSS community-based organizations’ internal business capacities, positioning them to enter into mutually beneficial partnerships with the health care sector.

This work is currently underway and will be accomplished in two phases.

For the first phase, the Foundation invited Colorado’s LTSS community-based organizations to apply to participate in the Colorado Linkage Lab, a 19-month executive and senior leadership program. Grants were made available to eight organizations to support up to $50,000 in travel and expenses for participation in a series of four didactic sessions, led by top-notch faculty, focusing on critical business skill development over the course of 19 months, as well as individualized technical assistance to support leadership in applying learned competencies.

Participating organizations are now invited to apply for phase two of the project in June of 2017, which provides up to $100,000 in business infrastructure grant funding per organization to equip them for effective partnerships with the health care sector.

Evaluation Activities

The Foundation will contract with a third-party evaluator to conduct a pre- and post-evaluation to:

  • Assess participating organizations’ accomplishment of key project tasks and objectives during the program period.
  • Assess principal outcomes at the program participant and organizational levels during the program period.
  • Identify the principal facilitators, barriers, and strategies to applying Linkage Lab skills, implementing desired tasks, and achieving positive outcomes during the program period.

Criteria

To be considered for the second phase of funding, solicited applicants (i.e., current Colorado Linkage Lab participants) must demonstrate within the grant application that they meet the following criteria:

  • Nonprofit serving Colorado seniors and/or individuals with disabilities to include: Area Agencies on Aging, Independent Living Centers, Home Health Agencies, Mental and Behavioral Health Organizations, Community Centered Boards and nonprofits offering services such as person-centered planning; care and transitions management; nursing facility transition and diversion; employment supports; mental health services; meals; transportation; benefits outreach and enrollment; chronic disease self-management; falls prevention; and other evidence-based programs.
  • Demonstrate financial and operational stability
  • Board commitment to integration with the health care sector
  • Participation of at least three members of senior management, one of whom must be the executive director or president/CEO. Other team members ideally include the persons in charge of:
    • Finance
    • Outreach
    • Marketing
    • Operations
  • Preference will be given to organizations that have:
    • Demonstrated progress on an identified partnership within the health care sector
    • Provided a strong business case and plan for a partnership within the health care sector 

We often partner with third-party evaluators, contractors and other organizations over the course of our work with applicants and grantees. Your application and its attachments may be shared with these individuals or entities during the review process and grant cycle. All third-party organizations partnering with the Foundation have signed a confidentiality agreement and will not use or share the information for purposes outside of the scope of work specific to the grant application or grant award. If you have any concerns or would like additional information, please email [email protected] or call our senior director of Grantmaking Operations at 303-953-3600.

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