YNHH, employees come through for our communities in 2019

David Facchini, manager of clinical quality and safety, Radiology, was among the YNHH employees who read to children at New Haven’s Strong School on Read Across America Day.

Yale New Haven Hospital and its more than 12,000 employees demonstrate commitment to the communities they serve every day, and not only through their work.

This is evidenced by YNHH’s winning the 2017 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service, the nation’s highest honor in the industry, as well as multiple annual community service awards from the Connecticut Hospital Association.

The Community and Government Relations department helps coordinate many activities and initiatives, including those that help employees play strong roles in supporting the community. Activities include:

- Read Aloud at Strong School: Over the past five years, YNHH’s partnership with this New Haven K - 4 school, which also serves children with autism, has grown from an annual celebration of the Dr. Seuss-themed “Read Across America” day into monthly opportunities for employee volunteers to read to children.

- Day of Caring: YNHH, United Way of Greater New Haven and Yale University partnered for the second-annual Day of Caring in September, when YNHH employees helped pack 37,000 meal kits for families in need and clean up a New Haven park.

- Walk & Talk With a Doc: Started in 2016, this program is a collaboration among YNHH, Get Healthy CT and the Yale Primary Care Internal Medicine and Medicine/Pediatrics Residency programs at YNHH. Every Saturday, May - September, a physician volunteers to walk with and provide health-related information to community members. Each one-hour, informal walk along the Farmington Canal Trail in New Haven includes a “Medical Minute” on a specific topic.

In 2018, Yale New Haven provided more than $5.5 million in financial and in-kind support to local organizations, specifically to address social determinants of health and improve health and wellness in Greater New Haven. More than 200 organizations benefit from YNHH’s philanthropy annually, including Columbus House and its Medical Respite Care Program; New Haven Promise, which provides college educations to New Haven Public Schools students; and ConnCAT, a workforce program that helps train local job seekers for well-paying careers like those available at YNHH.