A New Way To Talk About The Social Determinants Of Health

Vulnerable Populations Portfolio

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

When the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation went through a restructuring in 2003, it organized all the programs that worked at the community level to advance health into a new programming group called the Vulnerable Populations Portfolio. The newly created portfolio included a vast array of programs focused on areas as disparate as long-term care, school-based health and chronic homelessness. The members of the team struggled to find a meaningful connection among the programs that could help them discern a strategy for managing the current groups of programs and making future funding decisions.