At the Foundation we believe that improving the health of older Americans is a burning issue. We get up every morning thinking about how we can support our grantees to advance this mission, and we try to find ways that we ourselves can add value, beyond traditional grantmaking and monitoring. We believe that communicating and convening are two such essential tactics.
We now have a new tool to help with these tasks--a reconceived and redesigned website. When we began the redesign process, we laid out three big principles for the design firm. We wanted the site to be dynamic, learning-oriented, and networked. And we got them.
The new site is easy for us to update and keep fresh. In News and Events we can report recent grantee triumphs and keep track of the changing environment for our work. It provides a calendar where we can share meetings and activities we will attend and highlight opportunities to hear about Foundation-sponsored progress. The home page ties directly to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for up-to-the-minute news. And keep an eye open for a soon-to-be-released "Introduction to Hartford" video, currently in post-production.
The site also supports sharing what we are learning from our grantees, our travels, and our formal grant evaluations. In addition to integrating our nearly three-year-old blog (hard to believe, I know, but its birthday is March 20), the site also has a "Learning Center" we can use as a home for stories in our Grants@Work series, technical reports, sections of our outstanding annual reports, and anything else we haven't had a place for in the past. In our 30 years of work in aging and health, we have some great stuff in the archives. We will be shaking off the dust, polishing it up, and putting that knowledge back to work. And with an eye to the future, we will soon be highlighting the results of a new public opinion poll we have out in the field, "How Does It Feel? Quality of Care in America for People 65 and Older."
But the key ingredient in the new site is YOU! There are a number of ways that you can become actively involved in the site, first by Joining the Network. It’s very straightforward.
One of the features I am most excited about is the ability for those who have joined the network to "follow" and interact with grants and the community of people sharing their interests. You can choose to follow one or many grants. We will be asking all current grantees to join, become registered users, and follow their own grants. (Be on the lookout for an e-mail with a temporary password.)
For the grants you're following, you'll get e-mail updates as new material is connected to the grant — such as evaluation and progress reports and tools developed under the project. You'll be able to see and get contact information for others interested in the same work, and you can use Facebook and Twitter right there to share what you find interesting with those who are following you. Any registered user can upload material for inclusion with a grant (subject to moderation by an administrator). We don't think that any one of us, or even any one of our outstanding grantees, has all the answers. We can't do this work alone or in a vacuum. We will only succeed if we can bring to bear the strength of all of those who care about improving the health of older people. Like all tools, the website’s use is as important as its design. And in the case of this site, it really matters how YOU use it. Bringing all of you together, supporting your collective efforts, and sharing your lessons are critical to what the Foundation can contribute to our mission of improving older adults’ health.
So please go on the site, join the network, become a registered user. Follow grants and interact with other members of the Hartford network. Let us know what you are learning. Please poke around and see what else the site has to offer. You can find our e-newsletter, staff presentations, and Foundation publications under News and Events. Read articles on Health AGEnda or the Learning Center and offer your comments. Use the searchable grants database to find current grants. Use the general search bar to find other users with similar interests near you.
Once you’ve explored, we want to hear from you. What do you like about the new website? What could be improved? And, of course, are there any broken links, typos, or other bugs we’ve missed? We know that the site still isn't perfect, and we know that no one tool will ever be that silver bullet to solve all our problems. But if you give us feedback and suggestions, we will make a first round of revisions and tweaks promptly. We hope to add some new features by the end of the year.
Please join with us online!