Recognizing there is a lack of equity in healthcare for people living in underserved communities like parts of Waukegan and North Chicago, AbbVie developed a program with Chicago-based MATTER to help change the situation.
Claudia Carravetta, the president of the AbbVie Foundation and the corporation’s vice president of corporate responsibility and global philanthropy, said the establishment of a health equity accelerator will hopefully help change the equation.
Carravetta said people living in underserved areas experience limited access to quality healthcare for a variety of reasons. They include barriers of both geographical and physical bias, discrimination, how healthcare is delivered and more.
“This will help to advance efficiencies of programs to a larger scale that are sustainable in how they impact the communities they serve,” Carravetta said. “This program is designed to help identify community-based organizations that can support this model.”
AbbVie and MATTER launched the AbbVie Foundation Health Equity Accelerator in early September in North Chicago and Chicago with the goal of selecting a cohort of five participants to develop entrepreneurial programs to advance health equity.
Steven Collens, the CEO of MATTER, said the idea of the accelerator is to recruit five community-based entrepreneurial not-for-profit entities which are already finding a way to deliver quality healthcare and help them do it on a larger scale.
“We want to find organizations who know how to help 20 people and help give them the tools to help 20,000 people,” Collens said. “We’re looking for novel ideas with the potential to change people’s lives.”
Any 501©(3) not-for-profit organization in the United States is eligible to apply to become one of the five members of the cohort. Carravetta said they can apply online through the AbbVie Foundation’s website. The deadline to apply is Oct. 27.
“We’re looking for community-based organizations who are rethinking the delivery of healthcare,” Carravetta said. “They should be embedded in their community, and know the issues in their community. They should have a track record in their community.”
Planning to announce the five members of the cohort on Nov. 22, Carravetta said they will start the program on Jan. 6 at MATTER’s office in Chicago. They will work there for three to five hours a week for eight weeks. Collens said they will start to develop their ideas.
“We’ll give them the resources, people and tools they need to grow,” Collens said. “They’ll take their idea and work on it to make it larger.”
Each participant will receive a $10,000 stipend as they develop their idea, but Carravetta said they will be getting much more through mentoring, resources and networking. They will develop their ideas in ways to deliver them to many more people.
At the end of the eight-week session, Carravetta said each member will present their idea to a panel of experts for judging in a competitive environment. The winner will receive $50,000. There is one condition.
“They will use the money to develop the idea with the winning $50,000,” Carravetta said.
As an incubator for startup companies that impact the health of their communities among other endeavors, MATTER is well-suited to guide the cohort through the eight-week accelerator. Collens said the need is strong. He sees AbbVie as the right partner for the effort.
“The healthcare system presents people with a lot of challenges,” Collens said. “There is a large swath of people that don’t have access to high-quality healthcare and changing that is part of our mission.”
