Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg

10 Years of Impact

Ten years ago, in 2015, the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg first began its work in this community. Over the past decade, we’ve worked to make an impact through leadership, grantmaking, partnership, and advocacy to build a healthier, more equitable home for all who live here. We know that communities are better, richer, more vibrant, and healthier, when all of their members are able to lead healthy lives. With good health, we’re able to more fully contribute our gifts and talents. We can bring our best ideas, our most fruitful efforts, our kindest impulses, our most generous offerings.

Read on for highlights of the difference we’ve made for a decade, through leadership, funding, partnership, and advocacy that improves the social and environmental factors that shape our community’s health.

Q&A with Gaylynn Driver

Ten years ago, the Foundation hired its first team members and began work in our local community. Office Administrator Gaylynn Driver was there. As our longest serving team
member, here since day one, Gaylynn has seen it all – from the formation of our team to the evolution of our mission to the hundreds of grants we’ve awarded and hundreds of
gatherings we’ve convened.

10 Year Spotlight: Q&A with Gaylynn Driver

Thrive by Five

In December 2017, the Foundation was the first funder of a new initiative designed to unite different sectors of the community around a common goal: to increase the percentage of Pinellas County children ready to succeed in kindergarten. Today, more than seven years after that initial grant, Thrive by Five Tampa Bay (TB5) continues to amplify and accelerate access to services and resources for families.

Funded Partner Spotlight

Medical Legal Partnership

In 2018, the Foundation awarded a transformative grant of just more than $1 million to fund a unique collaboration designed to improve patient health and outcomes by connecting medical and legal services. The Pinellas County Medical-Legal Partnership Project worked to integrate legal professionals into a health care setting at what is now Evara Health’s Johnnie Ruth Clarke Center.

Funded Program Spotlight

Data Through the Decade

Through the Foundation’s decade of impact, we’ve helped produce and fund more than a dozen research reports on topics ranging from education, to the access and utilization of medical care, to economic opportunity. One of the most notable reports we helped produce for our community is An Equity Profile of Pinellas County, Florida, published in 2019 through UNITE Pinellas.

10 Year Spotlight: Data & Research Through the Decade

Meeting the Moment: COVID

Crisis calls for rapid adaptation and, in 2020, the Foundation board, partners, and community rose to meet the challenge. Early in the pandemic, we opened our Center for Health Equity to community partners working to process financial assistance for people in need, and then test and vaccinate our community. Learn about other ways we led, funded, partnered, and advocated to help our community during COVID-19.

10 Year Spotlight: Meeting the Moment – COVID Response

From Reunion to Razed

In 2021, the Foundation helped fund a reunion of the Gas Plant and Laurel Park neighborhoods, bringing together former residents who were displaced to make way for Tropicana Field. In doing so, we created a space for residents to reminisce about their shared pasts to help correct and deepen the narrative a – and prevent similar injustices from happening again. In 2024, we funded the production of Razed, a full-length feature about the Gas Plant neighborhood.

10 Year Spotlight: Shifting Narratives, From Reunion to Razed

BY THE NUMBERS

A DECADE OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Total Foundation Grantmaking Since Inception: $32.3 million
Total Number of Grants Awarded: 488
Largest Grant Awarded: $1,650,000
Community Leaders Who Have Served as Trustees: 50+
Number of Community Members Hosted in the Center for Health Equity: 10,600+