Thinkspace Origins

The Foundation: Learning Through Investment

2017: Huntington, West Virginia - A $1 Million Commitment to Crisis Response

When the opioid epidemic reached crisis levels across Appalachia, Quality Insights' Board of Directors made a defining decision: to address the ongoing crisis by investing directly in community solutions. After extensive vetting, they identified Healthy Connections, an upstart coalition seeking to unite Huntington, West Virginia—a community facing devastating rates of substance use disorder and neonatal abstinence syndrome.

What began as a $1 million in-kind investment became an eight-year partnership that demonstrated the power of sustained, expert-driven community support. Quality Insights' team provided comprehensive assistance in stakeholder engagement, learning and diffusion, multimedia production, and combating substance use disorder stigma.

The results spoke volumes. Together, the partnership:

• Orchestrated large-scale virtual, in-person, and hybrid conferences that reached hundreds of stakeholders
• Produced a peer-reviewed scientific study on media's impact on substance use disorder stigma, published in the Journal of Substance Use
• Developed comprehensive e-learning courses for both clinicians and consumers
• Created an extensive YouTube channel, providing wide-ranging resources for the community
• Has sustained and grown for more than eight years, continuing to make measurable differences

This wasn't just funding—it was incubation. Quality Insights provided the scaffolding, expertise, and long-term commitment that allowed a community-driven solution to flourish and become self-sustaining.

The Evolution: From Direct Investment to Systematic Change

2023: The 50th Anniversary Grant Program - $100,000 in Strategic Community Investments

As Quality Insights celebrated its 50th anniversary, leadership recognized that decades of community partnerships had revealed a pattern: the most transformative healthcare improvements came from supporting innovative, community-driven solutions rather than imposing top-down programs.

The $100,000 anniversary grant program became a laboratory for this philosophy, funding diverse initiatives across nine states and territories. The results demonstrated the incredible potential when communities are empowered with resources and expertise:

Grassroots Health, a Baltimore-based organization that recruits and trains college athletes to deliver sports-based health education modules in under-resourced middle schools, exceeded every target with Quality Insights support:

• Reached 1,537 students (28% above their goal of 1,200)
• Trained 506 college athletes as health educators (153% above their goal of 200)
• Expanded to 75 classrooms across 12 middle schools
• Achieved statistically significant improvements in nutrition, sexual health, and mental health education
• Sustained 100% of school partnerships into the following year, with additional schools joining

Lori's Hands, a Baltimore-based nonprofit service organization that provides instrumental and social support to community members with chronic illness through college student volunteers, transformed chronic illness support by creating mutual benefit that strengthened both healthcare education and patient care. Their innovative model demonstrated how authentic community connections could address isolation while building the next generation of compassionate healthcare providers.

The WISH Program (Women Interested in Staying Healthy), led by the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg, enrolled over 50 women in Greenbrier County health education sessions, achieving remarkable outcomes:

• Participants' self-rated health improved from 3.8 to 6.5 on a 10-point scale
• 100% voted to continue as a peer-led support group after the formal program ended
• Family ripple effects included spouses losing weight and grandchildren adopting healthier habits

Literacy Delaware, a Wilmington-based organization focused on closing health equity gaps through education, developed specialized health literacy programming for dialysis patients, achieving 100% improvement in participants' understanding of chronic kidney disease causes and stages.

Think Kids, a Charleston, West Virginia organization, created the West Virginia Wraparound Intensive Support in Enrollment (WV WISE) model to provide person-centered benefits enrollment assistance that overcomes stigma and addresses health disparities in rural settings.

The SafeHaven Coaching Network, developed by the Medical Society of Virginia Foundation in Richmond to bolster health and wellness coaching resources for healthcare professionals, pioneered peer coaching approaches with 100% of participants reporting that coaching made them more likely to stay in their roles and would recommend it to others.

The Insight: Communities as Innovation Labs

Through these investments, Quality Insights discovered something profound: when provided with the right combination of resources, expertise, and sustained support, communities don't just implement solutions—they innovate them. Each partnership revealed unique approaches, unexpected collaborations, and sustainable models that could be scaled and adapted.

The common thread across every successful initiative was incubation—not just funding, but:

• Expert guidance and mentorship from Quality Insights staff
• Partnership commitments that allowed programs to evolve and adapt
• Capacity building that empowered communities to become self-sustaining
• Knowledge transfer that enabled local leaders to scale their impact
• Network connections that linked communities with additional resources and partnerships

The Vision: Thinkspace Rural Health Incubator

These experiences crystallized into a powerful realization: the most effective way to address healthcare challenges in underserved communities was not through individual grants or isolated programs, but through a systematic approach to incubating breakthrough ideas.

Thinkspace represents the evolution of Quality Insights' community investment strategy—from reactive funding to proactive innovation support. The incubator model leverages everything learned from Huntington's opioid crisis response and the anniversary grant program's diverse successes: Connecting Breakthrough Ideas to Underserved Communities

Thinkspace embodies Quality Insights' core belief that transformative healthcare solutions emerge when three elements align:

• Community-identified needs and locally-driven solutions
• Expert support and guidance in implementation and scaling
• Sustained partnerships that enable long-term impact

The incubator model scales the personalized, expert-driven support that made Healthy Connections successful and applies the systematic approach that enabled the anniversary grant recipients to exceed their goals. Rather than waiting for communities to apply for funding, Thinkspace actively identifies, nurtures, and scales the breakthrough ideas that can transform healthcare delivery in underserved areas.