Anchor Institutions Task Force News
November, 2025
AITF Highlights
Values in Action Event
This has been an important year for AITF. The Values in Action theme has played an unprecedented role in reaffirming AITF’s priorities and unifying our various efforts. The theme has truly been infused into group discussions throughout the year and in publications, including this newsletter.
The AITF annual event was an exciting culmination of the theme’s impact on our work. The event took place on November 6 in New York City. It was an opportunity for veteran and new AITF members to come together and discuss how anchor institutions and community partners are demonstrating core values in their localities. Our speakers, representing various fields, shared their experiences committing to place and community, collaboration (including cross sector collaboration), democracy and democratic practice, and social justice and equity (including racial justice and racial equity).
Thanks very much to our event speakers, attendees, and all of those who helped make this year’s thematic event possible. As we know many of you were not able to participate in the event, you can listen to a recording whenever you get a chance: AITF Presents: Values in Action 2025
Theme for 2026
AITF’s Advisory Council recently discussed our theme for next year. The emphasis on AITF’s values that has permeated all of our work this year is worth continuing. We are envisioning building on, refining, and further defining Values in Action going forward. For AITF action is driven by values. In our Advisory Council meeting, we reiterated that AITF has always put its values first and anchor actions are driven or catalyzed by these values. Therefore, how commitment to values shapes action will be central in our upcoming work. We will also further highlight what it means to take action -- specific types of approaches/actions. We have been showcasing particular types of anchor actions such as how anchors form and sustain cross sector collaborations. We will pay more attention to particular manifestations of how anchor institutions take action in their communities.
It is also important to note that storytelling and new forms of how we communicate about the role of anchor institutions in their communities will play a greater role in our efforts. Our various discussions this year, framed by Values in Action, have stimulated a greater demand for more intentional communications and storytelling strategies and methods.
Leadership Matters
We thank this year’s cohort of Anchor Fellows for their participation in the program and their powerful words regarding their visits and the impact of the program. We look forward to working with the 2026 cohort, which will begin their experience as fellows in January. We appreciate how the program has evolved since its inception in 2019, and can see how it is impacting the individual fellows, their institutions, and AITF. As awareness of the program grows, we are increasingly receiving inquiries. We will release our next call for applications for the 2027 cohort in January.
We recently distributed our third volume in our Leadership Guide series. We intend to produce another volume next year. If you are interested in submitting an essay for the next volume, please let us know.
SBH Health
Thanks so much to SBH Health System for agreeing to be featured in this issue’s Member Profile. We heard from AITF Advisory Council Co-Chair and SBH CEO, David Perlstein and his colleague Ninfa Segarra (SBH’s Senior VP Communications and External Affairs, Community & Government Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer) during the November 6 event. We are pleased to follow up on their remarks with some additional detail on the important work of SBH Health System as an anchor institution in the Bronx, NY. Please take a moment to review this exciting and important profile below.
AITF Member Spotlight
SBH Health System: A History of Serving the Poorest Residents
SBH is an independent, non-denominational, private not for profit health system located in the heart of the Bronx, New York. Our commitment to community has been a core value of ours for many years, and we have changed our approach many times to meet the needs of our diverse and ever evolving community.
Founded by an Episcopalian Reverend in April 1866 as a chronic care facility named The Home for the Incurables, we have been an unwavering partner in Bronx healthcare for over almost 160 years. The hospital was established as the first U.S. institution dedicated to serving the poor suffering from chronic incurable conditions who had no other care options. The “Home” was completely dependent upon the benevolence of private citizens, some of whom with notable names including Vanderbilt, Astor, and Roosevelt.
Within five years, the facility had already outgrown its first location and soon moved one mile away to its current 11-acre site in 1874. From the early 20th century through 1970 the hospital continued to grow and transform, undergoing name changes, ultimately being reclassified as an acute care hospital, and officially renamed St. Barnabas Hospital after a new six story wing was built in partially in response to the newly created federal insurance programs, Medicare and Medicaid, which transformed how the elderly and less fortunate paid for their health care needs.
Today we are SBH Health System, named so in 2014 in recognition that most of our care was delivered outside of the hospital walls. Though our name has changed several times over the past 160 years, our commitment to community has not, and today, St. Barnabas Hospital is a 422-bed independent not-for-profit, non-denominational community teaching hospital serving the poorest urban congressional district in the country. We employ almost 3000 people, of which 82% are nonwhite, and 65% are female. Most of our employees live in the Bronx.
Accelerating Our Anchor Commitment
Over the past 10 years, we have increasingly recognized our role as an Anchor Institution and have accelerated our commitment to improving the health and wellness of the community, building a compelling reputation as an essential collaborative healthcare provider, consistently offering high-quality services, positive patient and physician experience, and strong social drivers of health supports.
Nearly 95% of our patients are insured by government payers and 88% of our patients discharged from the hospital are covered by Medicaid. This is simply a reflection of the poverty that is prevalent in our community. Poverty has an incontrovertible negative impact on health and wellness, and poverty rates in the Bronx have been rising for several years and currently almost 30% of Bronx residents live below the poverty level. That pales in comparison to the Bronx’s childhood poverty rate which is now over 40%. In addition, 60% of Bronx households with children report food insecurity.
We perform a triennial community needs assessment which helps drive our programmatic priorities and unsurprisingly some of the greatest needs include those associated with extreme poverty. Our focus this year is not significantly different from previous years and includes addressing the community’s concerns about housing affordability, food insecurity and public safety, however more specific needs were also identified including the need to address obesity and dental care as well as behavioral health issues and gun violence.
Addressing the Social Influencers of Health
At SBH we believe in meaningful collaboration and have long committed to changing how we deliver care. Our partnership with a developer back in 2015 to build 314 units of affordable housing and clinical space committed to health and wellness served as introduction into our 10-year affiliation with AITF. In our Health and Wellness Center, we spend more on prevention then on treatment; our community health approach which incorporates a teaching kitchen, fitness center and rooftop farm, are all leading to improvements in the health and wellness of our patients. We are fully engaged in a battle to address the social influencers of health and believe that our continued success will be dependent on changing how our community views our role in their health. We want to decrease the need for emergency and inpatient care by maximizing the health and wellness of our patients, building for a better future. This is not a solo endeavor and will require significant partnerships across the entire continuum including state and local government, as well as meaningful collaboration amongst community providers, hospitals, patients, and payers.
We have built our strategic plan around our desire to be an anchor partner to the community, and we have built a shared vision focused on four puzzle pieces: Achieving Financial Stability, Expanding Community Engagement, Advancing Population Health and Transforming the Physical Environment. These pieces are all connected and driven by the desires of our patients who remain central to everything we do.
Some examples of our accomplishments over the past few years include:
We have now reported three successive years with positive margins.
We have grown our community engagement programs through synergies with our Health and Wellness Center.
We continue to build on our almost 20-year full risk relationship with Healthfirst, the largest not for profit managed care organization in New York State. We currently take full risk on over 30,000 individual members, allowing us to have the freedom to invest in alternative ways of caring for our patients, focusing on prevention over admission.
We actively built a relationship with the new CUNY School of Medicine and serve as their primary clinical partner educating hundreds of students annually.
We are in active discussion with the New York City Health + Hospitals system (the largest municipal system in the US) to collaborate on improving healthcare delivery across the entire continuum, discussing opportunities for regionalization to improve access and outcomes for our shared patients.
All these strategies fit into our desire for becoming the Healthcare Partner of choice in the Bronx, adopting the vision to build and expand a comprehensive anchor collaborative aimed at empowering community members by fostering health and wellness that can lead to more opportunities for our Bronx patients to live happier, hopeful and healthier lives.
Resources from the Field
NPEA 2026 Annual Conference
April 15-17, 2026
Atlanta, GA
The Westin Buckhead
Next April, the National Partnership for Educational Access will convene education leaders from across the country at its annual conference to share strategies for supporting students from under-resourced communities. The theme for the 2026 event is Collective Power, Shared Purpose: Advancing Access in Education.
Multi-Sector, Community-Driven Partnerships: An Intentional Strategy to Advance Health Equity (Commentary)
What does it take to make meaningful progress in addressing health disparities in communities? The National Academy of Medicine argues that multi-sectoral partnerships that are driven by communities themselves are part of the solution.
What Works: Downtown Revitalization in San Francisco (Report)
JPMorganChase has published a report focusing on San Francisco’s downtown district as a model for how local collaboration can enable cities to navigate pressing post-pandemic challenges.
Financial Health and Wealth Dashboard
To help local leaders target their solutions, Urban Institute’s dashboard illustrates financial health and wealth across cities, states, and local areas—with a focus on residents with lower and moderate incomes and communities of color.
Understanding Rural Economies (Podcast)
Daniel Davis talks about the importance of understanding the economies of small towns and rural areas. He also discusses the work that the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has done to examine these economies and connect with community leaders, including the recent launch of the Richmond Fed's Center for Rural Economies and Investing in Rural America webinar series.
News & Articles
Five lessons about anchor networks - from CLES Blog
October 20 - The UK Centre for Local Economic Strategies, the national organization for local economies, shares key takeaways from a recent workshop engaging practitioners from seven different anchor networks across the country.
A Practical Guide to Liberatory Leadership: Rooting Our Actions in Our Collective Transformation. - from Nonprofit Quarterly
November 11 - The fourth and final installation in Nonprofit Quarterly's Liberatory Leadership series presents a framework for how leaders can foster collective trust, avoid saviorism mindsets, and build new structures for change.
Baltimore’s new tax deal with wealthy institutions falls short, activists say - from Baltimore Beat
October 20 - On October 1, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced a deal that would see the city’s 14 eds and meds make voluntary payments for city services that will gradually rise from $6 million per year to $12 million by 2030. The announcement came days before the passage of legislation that would have given the City’s workers and residents a seat at the negotiating table among other provisions including the creation of a public reporting mechanism for voluntary payments.
Councillors vote to reinvent libraries in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole - from Buzz
October 24 - Councillors recently voted to advance a plan that would modernize service at libraries in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole such that they can operate as stronger anchor institutions.
From classrooms to college halls: How a community partnership is shaping the future of third graders in Pleasantville - from NJEA
October 29 - “In a pioneering initiative that sets a new precedent for educational collaboration, third-grade students from Leeds Avenue School in Pleasantville recently made history as the first elementary school group to partner with Atlantic Cape Community College (ACCC) in Mays Landing.”
Beloved Community Partnership Powers BIE Program For Ward 2 - from WLBT News
November 5 - The Beloved Community Partnership is an initiative of the International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson, Mississippi focusing on five core areas including entrepreneurship & economic development. The Business, Incubation, Entrepreneurship program aims to cultivate a thriving small business community in Ward 2.
Civic engagement and the ‘art of democracy’ - from St. Olaf College News
November 4 - Alyssa Melby, the director of the new St. Olaf Svoboda Center for Civic Engagement, was one of several speakers to address attendees at an October 8 event titled Civic Engagement as a Liberal Art. “We are strongly invested in exploring how we as an institution can work with our community partners to ensure they are getting value and benefit from being in a relationship with us on a more holistic level.”
How Small Towns and Public Partnerships Transformed Internet Access in Western Massachusetts - from Institute for Local Self-Reliance
November 18 - Residents of Western Massachusetts spearheaded partnerships as part of a grassroots movement to transform internet connectivity across the region.
Academic Journal Articles
Journal Article: Meagher, T., Bezboruah, K., Rodriguez, A., Suh, J., and Nwakpuda, E. (2026). College towns and creativity: Exploring potential interactions between educational institutions and local cultural economies, Cities, Volume 169: 106566, ISSN 0264-2751. Link
Journal Article: Durrer, V., and Davey, M. (2024). Slow and steady? Capacity building for participatory governance in local arts development through practitioner-researcher collaboration, City, Culture and Society, Volume 37: 100578, ISSN 1877-9166. Link