​GHR Foundation's Catholic Schools funding works to ensure the Twin Cities’ urban Catholic schools are faith-filled, academically excellent educational communities that prepare children to be college-ready, productive citizens. One of the key strategies we use to support Catholic schools is testing and incubating new models which will lead to viable and academically excellent schools. Finding new approaches to instruction, student support and governance requires partnership with like-minded, forward-thinking organizations.
 
GHR staff and board members recently attended a convening of the Philanthropy Roundtable Catholic schools working group.  Over two days in Agoura Hills, Calif., more than 20 Catholic school funders met to discuss how working collaboratively on a national scale impacts work on a local level. Members of the GHR team met with key thought leaders from the National Catholic Education Association and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to advocate and discuss partnership.
 
The group split divided into small conversations, tackling issues including the expansion of school network and governance models, accessing performance data and developing talent and leadership.  The GHR team also had the opportunity to visit the headquarters of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and learn about their new strategies for supporting parental choice efforts.
 
These opportunities for collaboration, partnership and learning are key for the incubation and development of new models. If you are interested in learning more about new approaches to instruction, student support and governance, contact us.

GHR’s Health Initiative has committed more than $17 million over 5 years to scaling up important Alzheimer’s disease prevention research already underway. The Foundation is targeting funding to improve some of the largest research efforts in the field, including Washington University's DIAN-TU Study, which is quickly evaluating potential prevention treatments among those who are most likely to develop the disease, and Harvard University's A4 Study, which is working toward FDA approval for prevention therapy in the general population.

A recent Nature article highlights the importance of preclinical treatments, like DIAN-TU, which are initiated in cognitively unimpaired at-risk people, and are intended to postpone, reduce the risk of or completely prevent the clinical onset of Alzheimer’s. The authors argue that we need faster ways to evaluate these treatments, new ways to collaborate towards common goals and determination to expedite preclinical trials.

One useful tool for accelerating the initiation and performance of these trials is Collaboration for Alzheimer’s Prevention (CAP), a convening and consensus-building initiative co-founded by DIAN-TU and A4, among others. Important strides made by CAP include:

• Development of trial outcomes, including cognitive and clinical endpoints and biomarkers
• Standardization of sample and data collection, such as the use of tau imaging in all CAP trials
• Participant recruitment and retention through the development of a registry
• Data and sample sharing mechanisms

​These developments help carry out Alzheimer’s prevention trials with care, thoroughness and maximum impact. ​While all research is uncertain, the potential to turn the tide and provide hope for all families that face Alzheimer’s has never been more promising.  To learn more about GHR’s Alzheimer’s prevention funding efforts, contact us.