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Blog Articles

The Wellville Quadrant Chart: Looking Far and Looking Wide

At Wellville, we use our basic quadrant chart not so much to describe ourselves, but to explore the mindset shift we want to foster.   Our two axes are “short-term thinking” vs. “long-term thinking,” and “benefits just me” vs. “benefits all,” otherwise called “self-interest” vs. “shared interest.”

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Who decides what to do? This is a quadrant chart. In the lower left, they decide what and how. In the upper left, They decide what and you decide how. In the lower right, you decide what and they decide how. And in the upper left, you decide everything.

Who decides? A Wellville story in quadrant charts

Perhaps the best way to explain Wellville’s unusual role/methods is in a quadrant chart. Let’s call it the “Who decides?” chart. It visualizes how help is offered to communities by outsiders, including Wellville, who either tell you or ask you what to do or how to do it – or both! The “you” is the community members, in all their glory and variety of needs and capacities. 

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Spartanburg Councilmember Jerome Rice Jr.

Spartanburg City Council acknowledges, apologizes for systemic racism

Last Monday the Spartanburg City Council approved unanimously a “Healing, Reconciling and Unity” resolution, acknowledging “the historical antecedents of systemic racism” and apologizing to residents for “racial injustices and long-lasting inequities that have resulted from those policies.” The unprecedented resolution also enumerates specific actions Council members will take, including to “promote racial equity through all policies approved by City Council” and “support community efforts to amplify concerns about racist policies and practices.”

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The Crown Act Logo

Anti-Discrimination Law Passes Thanks to Hartford Students

The Hartford City Council passed the CROWN Act, which prohibits the denial of employment and educational opportunities because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including braids, locks, twists or bantu knots. The bill was introduced to the Council by students in Advocacy to Legacy, a nonprofit organization that teaches individuals and communities how to advocate for themselves.

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black

Close the gap: Racial equity is fundamental to our health

There is so much in our hearts and minds following these tumultuous past few months and intense past few days. This is a moment to consider the causes of the consequences that are now on full display. It’s time to call out what led to such health disparities and what will it take to improve outcomes for all.

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Man presenting to a medium size group of people

All Hands on Deck

When Covid-19 hit the US, we asked ourselves: Now that everyone is just trying to stay alive and save jobs, is Wellville just a distraction? We can’t just preach about the long term and what people want to achieve by the end of the Wellville project while they are busy responding to the short term. Instead, we tried a different question: How can we build a better long-term future even as we address current needs?

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Wellville

SAMHSA Evaluators Rave About Muskegon’s MYalliance

Officials with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration traveled to Muskegon at the end of August to review the progress of MYalliance System of Care (SOC), a collaboration between youth, families, schools, and other child-serving agencies to better serve youth with complex needs and their families. The SAMHSA evaluators were inspired by “visionary leadership across agencies and youth and families” and said their experience in Muskegon was “not their usual site visit.”

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Wellville

Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Well.

Kathy Dunleavy reflects on Wellville and the future of philanthropy: “Our tagline is ‘Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Well.’ When I think about Wellville in the context of philanthropy, [Wellville founder] Esther [Dyson] was extremely bold and brave. I hope this is just the beginning of a new type of philanthropy.”

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Wellville

The 2018 Wellville Gathering

The theme of the 2018 Wellville Gathering was to ask a simple question: What story do we want to tell at the end of the 10-year Wellville project, on December 31, 2024? Each Wellville community answered this question.

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Wellville

The Investor’s View: Creating Value on the Way to Wellville

As “investors” who selected and then made a 10-year commitment of time and support to five communities and their local health collaboratives, we’re betting on the long game: the ongoing creation of value as teams endure the inevitable twists and turns—and make the most of opportunities—along the way to Wellville.

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100&Change

Wellville’s 100&Change Application

In the final installment of our application to the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change grant competition, we describe the kind of partners necessary to do our work, our approach to human subjects research, and tell the origin story of our team.

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100&Change

Wellville’s 100&Change Application

Here’s how we described our tactics and the technology we’ll deploy, and our timeline for doing so, if we win the MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change competition. This is the third installment of our application for this major grant opportunity.

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Wellville

Postcards from Wellville

A visit to Wellville communities revealed efforts on social determinants of health, pay-for-success financing strategies, and early childhood development.

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