Missouri Foundation for Health is requesting proposals from qualified contractors to design and facilitate a learning cohort of seven organizations implementing projects to change their local behavioral health systems.

The selected contractor will be responsible for designing and facilitating a cohort structure that:

1. Bolsters project leaders’ systems-level thinking
2. Strengthens the system-change approaches of the seven projects involved
3. Shares the challenges and successes of systems change across the projects with the intent of advancing and sustaining change beyond the project period

Background
The local system-change cohort is part of the Foundation’s behavioral health strategy which focuses on systems-level approaches to test new models, improve access, and spread innovations with the potential for long-term impact.

The cohort is comprised of seven awardees (e.g., organizations, collaborative partnerships, etc.) engaged in efforts to adapt or change their local behavioral health system. Project aims and approaches include building stronger networks, bringing in partners from overlapping systems (e.g., criminal justice, education, etc.), and creating streamlined information sharing systems.

Projects are 36-months in length and began in February 2020. Led by MFH staff, the cohort has met two times in 2020 to orient themselves to each other’s projects and gain a common understanding of systems thinking.