Central Oregon

Culture of Care Partnership

Central Oregon’s six school districts are embracing school-wide trauma-informed practices. More than 15% of Oregon’s kids have lived through 3+ adverse childhood experiences. By changing culture from early childhood programs to high school, the Culture of Care Partnership is providing districts the tools they need to help their students and teachers succeed. In building the resilience of kids and adults, the effort aims to increase high school graduation by 8% in the next seven years, improve kindergarten readiness by 5%, and significantly reduce exclusionary discipline and students missing school days. The Partnership received $1.5 million in funds from the Central Oregon Health Council out of a pool of money created by shared savings in the region’s Medicaid delivery.

Shift Health Accelerator is helping the Culture of Care Partnership market their approach and outcomes to funders like the US Department of Treasury SIPPRA program, which is interested in supporting programs for children that can reduce federal expenditures or increase federal revenue. Our Letter of Intent to Apply is an example of how outcomes-based funding can create a win-win: revenue for communities to sustain the kinds of systems-change work they know they need and more effective, more efficient, programs for funder.