The Healthy Shelby initiative was launched yesterday as a new priority of Memphis Fast Forward. 

From The Commercial Appeal:

Shelby County government is launching a public-private effort called Healthy Shelby to improve the health of residents and reduce the cost of medical care.

"This initiative will link hospitals, doctors and social-service providers to help improve patient care," Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell said when he announced the collaborative effort Monday.

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Baptist Hospital, the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, the Church Health Center and the Health Department will be part of the alliance.

"What's unique is that we have collaboration between four large, usually competing hospitals, which have joined with the Shelby County Health Department and other community agencies to address outcomes and help control costs," said Luttrell.

The Healthy Shelby project is part of the Memphis Fast Forward agenda -- a community program that has previously focused on economics, crime reduction and education -- and will be administered by the Healthy Memphis Common Table, a regional health care network of more than 200 community health organizations.

Luttrell said the initiative will cost roughly $250,000 over the next two years, with Shelby County providing $25,000 and the rest coming from private sources.

Almost $2 million is spent in the region each year on emergency-room visits that could be avoided with better primary care, according to Healthy Memphis Common Table.

Healthy Shelby has three main goals: better management of chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, coordinated "end of life" care and lower infant mortality rates.

"This is a huge undertaking," said Dr. Kenneth Robinson, Luttrell's health-care advisor. "We are absolutely convinced we can do this." Organizers said they hoped to save patients, employers, governments and health-care providers money by shifting patient care toward primary physicians or specialists and away from emergency rooms and intensive care units.

Robinson said the group was exploring a program to reach African-American men with hypertension through their churches to get them proper early care for the condition and reduce costs for acute care later.

Nationally, 17 percent of adults age 18 years and over were without a usual place of health care, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those who said they had a regular place of care, 3 percent said they considered a hospital emergency room or outpatient department to be that place.

"Health care is complicated," said Dr. Scott Morris of the Church Health Center. "Changing the health care of a community is really complicated." "It's not going to be easy," said Luttrell. "Many of the issues we're facing are deeply entrenched."

 From WREG-TV News:

Inside the Church Health Center Wellness Facility, Sheila Manning is literally taking steps on this treadmill to beat many of the health conditions facing people living in Memphis and Shelby County.

Manning said, "I have high blood pressure and diabetes so I need to work out three times a week."

Health concerns such as those are the reasons Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell is launching a public-private effort called the Healthy Shelby Project.

It's designed to improve the health of people living here and reduce the cost of medical care.

Luttrell said, "If you are going to have good education, you're going to have good health care. if you're going to impact public safety, you're going to have to have good health care and if you're going to grow the workforce, you're going to have to have employees with good health care."

The Healthy Shelby Project alliance will include the Church Health Center, the Shelby County Health Department, Methodist Le Bonheur, Baptist Hospital, and the Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Scott Morris is with the Church Health Center.Morris said, "We've brought competitors to the table saying we want to work together and if we succeed we will make less money. That's pretty amazing saying we want to do this for the good of Shelby County."

Their focus will also be to better manage chronic diseases.

Dr. Kenneth Robinson is a health care advisor to the mayor.Robinson said, "Number one is trying to keep people healthy and make them healthier so they don't need health care and two is to change how and when where they receive the health care they need and finally when they receive it, make it less expensive."

It's a plan Sheila Manning says could help save money and lives.

Manning said, "Yes, so they can have a healthy life and don't be sick and have all those illnesses."

Luttrell says the county will put up about $25,000 and the rest of the money will come from private sources. The project is modeled after the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Triple Aim program, with a local emphasis on health matters.

The highly respected Stanford Social Innovation Review followed up its article about "making collective impact work" by spotlighting several programs doing just that.  One of them was Memphis Fast Forward.

The publication wrote: "Even more surprising than the level of interest is the number ofcollective impact efforts we have seen that report substantial progressin addressing their chosen issues. In addition to GAIN and CommunitiesThat Care, Opportunity Chicago placed 6,000 public housing residents in new jobs, surpassing its goal by 20 percent; Memphis Fast Forward reduced violent crime and created more than 14,000 new jobs in Memphis, Tenn.; the Calgary Homeless Foundationhoused more than 3,300 men, women, and children and contributed tostopping what had been the fastest growing rate of homelessness inCanada; and Vibrant Communities significantly reduced poverty levels in several Canadian cities."

To read more of the fascinating article, "Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work," click here. 

Here's the beginning of the article:

In the winter 2011 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Reviewwe introduced the concept of “collective impact” by describing severalexamples of highly structured collaborative efforts that had achievedsubstantial impact on a large scale social problem... All of theseinitiatives share the five key conditions that distinguish collectiveimpact from other types of collaboration: a common agenda, sharedmeasurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuouscommunication, and the presence of a backbone organization. (See ”TheFive Conditions of Collective Impact,” below.)We hypothesized that these five conditions offered a more powerful andrealistic paradigm for social progress than the prevailing model ofisolated impact in which countless nonprofit, business, and governmentorganizations each work to address social problems independently. Thecomplex nature of most social problems belies the idea that any singleprogram or organization, however well managed and funded, cansinglehandedly create lasting large-scale change.

The "Five Conditions of Collection Impact" are 1) common agenda; 2) shared measurement; 3) mutually reenforcing activities; 4) continuous communication; and 5) backbone support.  Each of these are explained in detail in the article.

 

The new Memphis Shelby Growth Alliance is now under way, replacing the successful MemphisED program that completes its five-year effort on June 30, 2012.

The Growth Alliance will build on its predecessor’s emphasis on broad-based public-private collaboration, strategic focus and emphasis on measurable results, and laser-like attention to improving the economic trajectory for our community.

The Growth Alliance will replace MemphisED as the economic development component of Memphis Fast Forward, the umbrella plan created when the mayors of Memphis and Shelby County approached Memphis Tomorrow in 2007 for help in developing an interlocking web of priorities to propel and super-charge the Memphis and Shelby County economy. These resulted in an agenda that targeted education/workforce development – PeopleFirst; public safety – Operation Safe Community; city and county government efficiency; and economic development – MemphisED.

The specific mission of the Growth Alliance is to identify and support initiatives that will create jobs and encourage long-term economic growth throughout Memphis/Shelby County. It will be led by a diverse alliance of approximately 50 economic development, business, community and government leaders collaborating on strategies to grow jobs and expand the economy.

Bill Evans, Director and CEO of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital since 2004, will chair the new organization, whose core activities include:

• Developing a strategic agenda of specific initiatives with game-changing impact
• Coordinating implementation teams for each initiative
• Measuring and monitoring progress
• Communicating results
• Advocating for public/private investment
• Aligning government policies in support of agenda

The results of MemphisED – originally chaired by Tom Schmitt of FedEx, then Joe DeVivo of Smith & Nephew Orthopeadics can be read here. As MemphisED completes its fifth and final year, the Growth Alliance will be ramping up. Some MemphisED strategies will continue under the Growth Alliance and new ones will be added, according to Reid Dulberger, vice-president of Greater Memphis Chamber and MemphisED administrator.

“For each strategy, the Growth Alliance will assemble teams of local leaders and entities to develop an implementation plan,” he said. “These will include action steps, resources, timetable, projected impact, and metrics. The Growth Alliance will approve each work plan, then provide oversight and assistance during the implementation stage.”

Dulberger said that MemphisED did not have a board per se, but that it “learned from Operation Safe Community the value that a large, broad-based board can provide.” The Growth Alliance Board will include all eight mayors in Shelby County, all seven chambers of commerce, and other public/private leaders.

It also will include a board member and the president of EDGE (Economic Development Growth Engine), the economic development organization which the Memphis and Shelby County mayors created to bring a greater strategic focus to the use of public incentives and public priorities. EDGE will bring together for the first time six economic development organization that were previously scattered throughout local government.

Four years after MemphisED breathed financial life into Innova, the program that links capital and great ideas is an unqualified success.

Innova was created by the Memphis Bioworks Foundation to make investments in early-stage companies with high growth potential. MemphisED capitalized the Innova I fund and supports on-going administrative costs. The State of Tennessee selected Innova for the TNInvestco program, which provided $14.3 million of additional investment capital for the Innova II fund.

Already, Innova has invested in 14 early stage/start-up companies and leveraged the $4.8 million from Memphis ED to attract $38.8 million more in public and private funding. Innova portfolio companies are expected to see $8 million in revenue this year, compared to $2.8 million last year.

Because of Innova, there are new capital, new jobs, new patents, and new company headquarters, but in addition, a new culture of innovation is growing in Memphis. Innova’s work is about more than the investment of capital. It also is about helping startup companies with the experience and expertise of its own investment managers and the senior business executives who serve as “entrepreneurs in residence” to accelerate the startups’ success.

As Steve Bares, head of the Memphis Bioworks Foundation which spawned Innova, said: “It’s really not just a seed fund. It’s the whole support function to get them from the idea to the point that they can attract angel investor or venture capital funding. A service like this is vitally important to achieve sustainable growth in innovation-based companies.”

One of these success stories is Cagenix, a dental implant service company with more than 20 patents. Cagenix produces implant frames customized for individual patients and without dental practices being required to invest heavily in expensive equipment and training. The company meets the demand for custom-designed bars and frameworks that offer fit, comfort, aesthetics, and convenience.

While bringing together experienced management, market expertise, and venture capital, Innova’s team keeps its values front and center:

• Proven Expertise. Innova's staff and partners are already leaders in their respective fields.
• Focused Planning. Innovation comes alive through thorough and expert planning. Innova identifies the right steps forward and eliminates surprises.
• Skilled Execution. Innova’s policy of market-proven staffing and rigorous oversight assure successful execution of the business plan.
• Good Company. The Memphis community, Innova’s core Memphis businesses and capital partners assure diverse opportunity, a well-spring of expertise, and a world-class synergy.

Ken Woody, Innova president, said: “If we can help them (startups) by filling-in the gaps with external capital, expertise and connections, and they provide the perseverance, we’ve got a key to success right there.”

It’s a key opening doors for more and more entrepreneurs these days.

The mid-November groundbreaking for Memphis Specialty Laboratory is a major step forward by Memphis Bioworks Foundation toward its goal of building a unique biomedical economy for Memphis and Shelby County.

It’s a success story that’s a major chapter in the history of Memphis Fast Forward.

At a time when dozens of cities were announcing bioscience initiatives that have since evaporated, Memphis Bioworks Foundation, with the help of Battelle Technology Partnership Practice, identified a unique niche that guaranteed Memphis a foothold in this growth sector of the economy.

In its 10-year history, the Bioworks project has attracted more than $100 million in investments in the research park that lies at the heart of its plans. Funding has come from Memphis Fast Forward, Plough Foundation, Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation, Methodist Healthcare, First Tennessee Bank, AutoZone, State of Tennessee, City of Memphis Government, Shelby County Government, and others.

The $21 million Memphis Specialty Laboratory’s 26,000 square feet become the crucial cornerstone for the UT-Baptist Research Park, a world-class center for economic development and entrepreneurship in the biosciences. Specifically, it achieves the foundation’s vision of Memphis as America’s premier orthopedic, musculoskeletal, spinal, and neurological implant center.

The biomedical sector has quietly been a key part of the regional economy, but the work of Memphis Bioworks Foundation will ramp it to the next level. The UT-Baptist Research Park is one of the few in the nation in a major city’s urban center, and it is a major anchor for the Midtown Medical Center.

Best of all, the Specialty Laboratory will keep $3-5 million here at home, money now being spent for biomedical research in laboratories outside of Memphis. But it’s more than just about the money, because when we keep research here, we broaden the foundation of work and experience here that can attract other research to our community.

Construction of Memphis Specialty Laboratory will take 14-16 months, and when completed, it will house 14 laboratories with special designs for the testing and potential commercialization work that is needed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. The building will be a model of “green
construction, with a green roof for lunchtime activities and special events, light pollution reduction, heat island mitigation, and other sustainable features.

In keeping with the focus of Memphis Fast Forward on game changers, Memphis Specialty Laboratory is creating momentum for the research park, attracting new tenants, bringing new technologies to our community, expanding health care research, and retaining local spending.

Memphis Bioworks Foundation has been building brick by brick a best-in-class organization with:

• A charter school focusing on math and science for low-income students
• Broad-based support for the $500 million research park which will create 9,000 jobs
• New postsecondary programs in biosciences and technology
• 45,000-square foot bioscience incubator for science and technology companies
• Alignment of public and private support for economic development opportunities in biosciences and technology

Crime in Memphis and Shelby County is dramatically on the decline, but one type of crime is a notable exception: domestic violence.

At a time when the overall crime rate was falling by double digits, domestic violence in one year more than doubled.

Attacking this stubbornly resistant crime is the reason Family Safety Center of Memphis and Shelby County was created. Today, with more than 20 partners, the Center is the only place victims of domestic violence need to go to access the full array of resources they need, including help with criminal prosecution, civil actions like orders of protection, health care, emotional support, mental health, and social services.

Family Safety Center Executive Director Oliette Murry-Drobot said the coordinated approach to domestic violence was inspired by Operation: Safe Community – Memphis Fast Forward’s successful agenda to fight crime and reduce the crime rate.

“This (Family Safety Center) is a best practice used in 44 other cities, and the approach is to provide one stop where domestic violence victims can get the help, support, and resources they need,” she said. “All of our partners are committed to responding in ways that respond to the individual needs of each victim.” The growing list of Family Safety Center partners can be read at www.fscmemphis.com.

When victims of domestic violence enter the Family Safety Center, they enter a place where their safety and their needs are paramount. Because all incidents and all families are not the same, three staff members - called navigators - meet with each victim to conduct an assessment that determines exactly what they need. Each victim is immediately connected with the agency offering the help they need, and this connection is expedited by the fact that each partner organization has assigned staff members to work at Family Safety Center.

“Domestic violence is an intimidating thing to go through, and our job is to help them as much as we can,” said Ms. Murry-Drobot, and in doing so, the Family Safety Center represents the concern and the compassion of Memphians themselves.

Special attention is given to the silent victims of domestic abuse – children. The serious impact of witnessing domestic violence is special cause for concern, because one in 10 children in the U.S. is exposed to domestic violence.

The Tennessee rate of domestic violence is 1,323 per 100,000 people, but in Memphis, the rate is about 3,000 per 100,000. About 26,000 calls to 911 each year are related to domestic violence, and Memphis Police Department receives 50 domestic violence calls a day.

“It’s why coordinated efforts are essential to fight all kinds of crime, including domestic violence,” said Ms. Murry-Drobot, who recently became a member of the board of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission.

“The reality and perception of crime have real impact on why people continue to stay here and if we can attract new people,” she said. “The Crime Commission takes a holistic look at how crime issues relate. For example, it considers reentry programs because we need to pay attention to what happens when domestic violence offenders return to the community.”

Operation Safe Community is at the forefront of planning and addressing issues with long-term impact, she said, and “that’s why I am excited about being a member of the board. It does indeed take private as well as public sector involvement to make a difference and the Crime Commission is that vehicle.”

Matchmaking is as old as human history, and in Memphis, it’s taken on an economic development twist as the Mid-South Minority Business Council Continuum (MMBC) matches corporate needs with local minority and women-owned businesses.

“Matchmaking is truly at the heart of everything we do,” said Luke Yancy, president of the 38-year-old economic development organization. “We take that role seriously and are focused on not just making any connection but to make the right connection.”

The right connections in the “Supplier Diversity Matchmaker Process” have produced $329 million in contracts for x number MBE clients -- 78 of whom had contracts of $1 million or more -- since the program got under way in earnest 2008. In only three years, the annual contract revenue for the program has increased almost 400 percent, reaching $127 million last year.  By 2015, MMBC expects at least 25 per cent of its top member firms to be employing 50 or more workers and achieving at least $30 million each in annual revenues.

The philosophy for the program is to create the relationships between corporations and minority and women-owned businesses that lie at the core of success. “The Matchmaker Process is designed to present very capable minority and women-owned companies to major Memphis corporations in a strategic fit that maximizes the corporations’ needs while at the same time expanding growth and vitality of minority businesses,” said Yancy.

MMBC acts as the accelerator, or intermediary, that connects the companies and provides the minority company with the expertise and resources to be able to competitively bid on contracts. It requires an emphasis on connecting the right partners and staying involved to make sure the process runs smoothly.  “If it’s not done properly and carefully, it frustrates the businesses and the corporations,” said Yancey. “It’s all about striking the right balance.”

Confidentiality prevents him from identifying companies, but he said that a major success story was connecting a global company headquartered in Memphis with a minority manufacturer who could provide a product at a highly competitive price. The manufacturing company now “has picked up three regions with the global company.”

To succeed, MMBC must have a deep understanding of the corporations and the minority and women-owned companies. The service is especially important to first generation minority entrepreneurs, because they don’t have the network that gives them access to present their capabilities.

“We connect them to the right people,” said Yancey, “and we follow them through the process and we stay involved to make sure things are going well and they’re happy with each other.” The lesson is that corporations “don’t have to look around the world to find quality companies to meet their needs if we are able to put capable companies in front of them,” he said. "Our corporate partners also know that we are familiar with the corporate environment and are sensitive to the efficiencies that they have to manage relative to price, quality, and productivity, and at the same time, we are working with our minority firms to position them as strategic partners versus just vendors."

"Working with MMBC has been powerful," said Joe Devivo, former president of Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics.  "The process included a presentation and counseling by MMBC that showcased the many capabilities of minority and women-owned businesses that can provide quality good and services to meet our needs.  Our efforts parallel the tenets of Memphis Fast Forward's Memphis ED Plan, and because it is a priority for us to work with diverse vendors, it will make a difference by creating jobs and impact in the communities where those businesses are located."

The accomplishments of the program were recognized when MMBC received the U.S. Department of Commerce’s MBDA Southeast Region “Advocate of the Year Award” for 2011.

The public and private corporations that have participated in the program number more than 40. They are:

AutoZone, Baptist Healthcare, Buckeye Technologies, Buckman Labs, CB Richard Ellis, Christ Community Health Services, City of Memphis, Durham Services, Electrolux, Ensafe, Federal Reserve Bank

First Tennessee Bank, Flintco Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Grinder Taber Grinder, International Paper, Linkous Construction, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare, Mitsubishi/O’Neal Inc., Memphis Area Transit Authorority

MLGW, Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, Memphis Zoological Society, Mid-America Apartment Communities LLC, Mississippi Minority Business Enterprise Center, Montgomery Martin, NUCOR, Pinnacle Airlines

ServiceMaster, Shelby County Government, Shelby County Schools, Skanska USA Building Inc., Smith & Nephew, Solidus, Southwest Tennessee Community College, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Tennessee Valley Authority, Turner Construction Company, University of Memphis, University of Tennessee-Memphis.

It was May, 2005, and property management company executive Pierce Ledbetter had a problem.

Before he was through tackling it, he would have created SAFEWAYS, a model program for fighting crime in apartment complexes and that symbolizes the philosophy and approach of Memphis Fast Forward. Like its parent, SAFEWAYS is anchored in data, innovation, partnerships, and measurable results.

It all began when Ledbetter, president and CEO of LEDIC, assumed management of the 432-unit Autumn Ridge complex in Hickory Hill which was notable as a hub of gang crime. It was a troubled property, edging toward foreclosure with only a 70 percent occupancy rate and located in a census tract with 1,200 residents and 1,200 yearly domestic violence calls to Memphis Police Department.

It was one of the most challenging situations that had ever faced the highly-regarded, locally- owned property management firm, so he called a childhood friend, then-City of Memphis Director of Public Services Keenon McCloy, for advice. She introduced him to University of Memphis criminologist Richard Jankowski – often called the father of Blue Crush – and she called then-District Attorney General Bill Gibbons for help.

These two calls connected him with a network of people developing what would become Operation Safe Community, Memphis Fast Forward’s crime-fighting agenda, and set him on a path that tested and abandoned strategies, created new ones, and in the end, launched SAFEWAYS in March, 2009. It is now recognized as a national best practice.

Like all Memphis Fast Forward programs, SAFEWAYS resulted from collaboration, this time with Memphis Police Department, Attorney General’s Office, Councilmen Harold Collins and Shea Flinn, Mayors Wharton and Luttrell, Phyllis Betts of University of Memphis, and Southeast Memphis CDC.

The breakthrough program cut crime in Autumn Ridge by 80 percent and increased occupancy to 95 percent. The turnaround resulted by the decision to enforce Tennessee’s trespassing laws in ways that served notice to criminals about a no tolerance attitude toward troublemakers in the apartment complex.

“Rich (Jankowski) walked the property with me and he stayed involved and agreed to tackle the problem with me,” said Ledbetter. “We had invested in security lighting, security gates, and security but without making a dent in the problem. Neighborhood Watch had been a dismal failure.”

In keeping with Memphis Police Department’s Blue Crush, the foundation for SAFEWAYS was enhanced crime analysis and mapping. Armed with more data, SAFEWAYS sprang from the realization that Neighborhood Watch was not effective in apartment complexes because there was no alliance of owners determined to protect their homes.

Because of it, the team turned to state laws about trespassing and about “authorization of agency” in which a property owner can submit a photograph of an offender on private property so he can be arrested if there is a second offense. The secret weapon: a no trespassing sign at Autumn Ridge that warned that the Attorney General’s Office would be enforcing the laws as the means to fight crime.

Ledbetter prepared a lease addendum for every tenant acknowledging that Autumn Ridge would be the test case for SAFEWAYS. Occupancy dropped temporarily as people committing crimes moved out, but it became clear quickly that the stepped-up enforcement was making a difference. Autumn Ridge now has the highest occupancy in a two-mile radius.

Soon, the lessons of Autumn Ridge will be expanded to other multi-family complexes next year. Its beauty, according to Ledbetter, is that it is “simple, effective, and relatively expensive.”

“It’s proved what can work, and renters should demand it and owners should seek it,” he said. “It is the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for a property.”