The financial crisis has hurt the wallets of most Americans, but now it could also hurt their health.
“It has been projected that at least 100,000 non-profits nationwide will be forced to close their doors in the next two years as a result of the financial crisis,” said Phyllis Shafran, the executive director of Queens Health Coalition (QHC). “Running a non-profit always has its challenges, but for us today, it’s a constant grind of matching our desire to help with the dollars available to achieve.”
The QHC, along with 60 health care providers and community-based organizations throughout Queens, held its annual membership meeting at LaGuardia Community College on Monday, May 11, to discuss ways that healthcare organizations can self-prescribe methods to continue providing quality services during the current economy.
The keynote speaker, David Weprin, City Councilmember and chair of the Finance Committee, urged the audience to develop innovative ways to streamline their operations and to cultivate partnerships that “help the non-profit do more with less in these troubled economic times.”
A panel of experts offered valuable “Tips of the Trade” that included advice on the importance of being prepared with written proposals for economic recovery funds, to the need for collaborating on projects. The panel consisted of QHC’s executive board members, who also hold leading positions in their own organizations, including Claudia Baldonedo, program director employment and career services, LaGuardia Community College; Betty Cheng, chief operating officer of the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center; Thomas Early, CEO, Health Plus; Sarina Jean-Louis, multi-site director, MIC at Astoria A Program of Public Health Solutions; Rabbi Robert Kaplan, director of CAUSE-NY of the Intergroup and Community Building division of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, and Martha S. Wolf, director of the Alzheimer Center at Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation.
