Humana Foundation Learnings: Aspen Institute Ideas Festival – Health

Humana Foundation CEO Tiffany Benjamin and Director of Strategy and Community Engagement Keni Winchester attended the annual “Aspen Institute Ideas Festival – Health” in Aspen, Colorado from June 20-23. The conference brought together more than 1,000 attendees from a variety of specialties, including healthcare and public health practitioners, researchers, business leaders, policymakers, advocates, artists and journalists, to elevate and accelerate bold approaches to better health for all.

Tiffany and Keni attended sessions throughout the three-day conference and met with important thought leaders and funders in philanthropy and health. In pursuit of leading the thinking and actions in these shared spaces, Tiffany and Keni shared several important learnings and takeaways from discussions at the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival – Health:

• Funders and philanthropists should remain connected and share ongoing practices – Often, they operate in silos or with limited understanding of issues connected, related, or slightly tangential to their focus areas. Hearing how others are approaching their work or questioning value-based work is important to challenging ourselves to better serve the community.
• Time to ideate is important and allows us to be proactive in our approaches – Quite often, philanthropy is reactive. After an event happens or an issue occurs, we respond. With that in mind, we often stay so focused on real-time solutions that we don’t have time to ideate and learn from others. At Aspen Ideas, we listened to several ‘Big Ideas’ from people in different areas of the public health and equity spaces. For example:
• We discussed social isolation and its impact across generations, from seniors to children, as well as how body image is grossly impacting boys, according to the US Surgeon General. This is especially important given the Humana Foundation’s focus on seniors and school-aged kids.
• Former surgeon general Jerome Adams shared how organizations are approaching Food is Medicine and how we can think about food differently. Each approach was unique and sparked our own ideas, prompting more learning from the communities we serve.
• Collaboration and Networking are valuable – No single person has the complete solution for solving issues like hunger or social isolation. However, by collaborating, sharing and networking with people who are solving, experiencing or disrupting systems, we can learn best practices and “best failures” and discuss new and innovative approaches in each space.
• Social Support in Real Time – Louisville’s own Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar discussed a project the University of Louisville is actively working on to measure how adding green spaces impacts the quality of life of Louisville residents. This session highlighted the need for community support to help strengthen organizations that are funding, solving for or actively working to make change.
• Emphasis on mental health to create the best learning space – The conference leaned into the Humana Foundation’s focus area of improving mental health. Having time away from the office in a setting that encourages creativity is important for maintaining your overall well-being. There was time to talk and connect with our colleagues, enjoy open areas and the outdoors, and most importantly have space to think. This environment created an optimal space to allow for ideation.

On behalf of the Humana Foundation, thank you, Tiffany and Keni, for sharing these learnings from the Aspen Institute Ideas Festival – Health.

This article and accompanying insights are part of the Humana Foundation’s continual growth journey where we share learnings to expand our knowledge in philanthropy to better serve our communities.