PITTSBURGH — To care for the communities UPMC serves — both inside and outside its hospital walls — The Beckwith Institute is providing $400,000 to support more than a dozen charitable organizations, as well as grants to health care workers devising projects that promote COVID-19 recovery efforts.
Among those charitable organizations are the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwestern Pennsylvania, which serves 11 counties including Cameron, Elk and McKean; and the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, which serves 27 counties including Potter.
Half of the money from the institute, founded with the goal of transforming the delivery of health care, will be used to address food insecurity and other emergency needs for the most vulnerable people in communities across Pennsylvania, western Maryland and western New York. The other half will fund the Beckwith Institute’s Frontline Innovation Program for projects that support the physical and emotional health of UPMC’s patients, staff and communities.
“In this unprecedented time, we thought it was important to devote even more of our resources to meeting the urgent needs of patients and staff coping with the impact of COVID-19,” said G. Nicholas Beckwith III, co-founder of the institute and chairman of UPMC’s board of directors. “Care does not begin and end in our hospitals, so we are funding a number of charitable organizations across our communities to ensure that we can compassionately address the full range of physical and emotional needs of the people we serve.”
UPMC staff members who apply for the Frontline Innovation grants by May 11 will receive up to $10,000 each for projects aimed at uplifting staff and providing emotional and physical comfort to patients and communities.
“Our staff has always risen to the challenge, no matter what we face, so we expect that we will fund a wide range of innovative ideas that promote recovery in these stressful and challenging times,” said Tami Minnier, chief innovation officer of UPMC and executive director of the Beckwith Institute.
Initially created through funding from Beckwith and his wife, Dorothy, the Beckwith Institute in 2012 became an endowed fund at UPMC, with matching support from the health system. Its Frontline Innovation Program, one of several transformation efforts, was founded on the belief that the best ideas to improve health care come from those who directly care for patients. The Beckwiths continue to play an active role in the institute’s evolution as it looks for new ways to improve the delivery of care for patients everywhere.
