Portland, Ore. — The Meyer Memorial Trust announced in January a $300,000 grant for the Archimedes Movement to directly engage Oregonians in a grassroots conversation about reforming the U.S. health care system. The Archimedes Movement was launched two years ago by former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber.
Doug Stamm, CEO of the Meyer Memorial Trust, said, “Oregonians deserve the opportunity to better understand the underlying causes of the health care crisis; the choices and tradeoffs necessary to reach a meaningful solution; and how best to ensure that their voices are heard in the process. We are optimistic this investment will help facilitate the Archimedes Movement’s important civic engagement process.”
The Archimedes Movement seeks to create civic engagement outside traditional political structures to advance solutions to the common problems we face – starting with the crisis in the U.S. health care system. Two components drive our movement: (1) a grassroots community education and engagement process aimed at reframing and changing the focus of the health care debate; and (2) the creation of a parallel process to describe the “optimal” health system; and to identify the barriers which must be overcome to create it.
“Until we can shift the focus of the debate from how we pay for health care to what we are buying and how that care is organized and delivered, it will be impossible to resolve this crisis,” said Kitzhaber. “The generous investment from the Myer Memorial Trust will help reframe the debate and shift to focus in this direction.”
The investment from the Meyer Memorial Trust will help support the community engagement to begin in late spring and continue throughout 2008. The funds will be administered by The Foundation for Medical Excellence, fiscal sponsor of the Archimedes Movement. The Meyer Memorial Trust is not connected to the Fred Meyer stores. The Meyer grant will compliment grassroots activities supported at www.WeCanDoBetter.org.
The grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust will enable the organization to solidify the core infrastructure needed to engage Oregonians statewide; to identify and foster community leadership; to develop community-based speakers’ bureaus; and to support activities in more communities around the state.
The Archimedes Movement is also a partner on a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant recently awarded to the Oregon Health Action Campaign under an initiative called Consumer Voices for Coverage.
