Who We Are
Enterprising Health is an initiative sponsored by Ascension Health (the parent company of the St. John Providence and Genesys Health Systems) that aims to create and/or expand health-improving businesses to be owned and operated by members of the Detroit and Flint communities. Our team consists of three staff members and a network of advisors who will be available to provide expert advice in a number of areas that will be important to the teams developing the businesses. Areas of expertise include, but are not limited to, business strategy, finance, marketing, human-centered design and health care.
What We Plan To Do
Over the next year, Enterprising Health will be working with local entrepreneurs to create businesses (or expand already-existing businesses) that are both profitable and improve the health of Detroit and/or Flint residents. All interested participant teams (minimum two people per team) are welcome to participate in the initial idea generation process. They will then be asked to participate in a competition, where they will present their business concepts to a selection committee made up of representatives from the Detroit and Flint communities as well as Ascension Health. From the pool of all initial participant teams, the committee will select three to five teams to receive preliminary funding and move on to a four-month pilot phase, when the teams will begin to test their ideas within the community to prove the viability of their business concepts. At the end of the pilot phase, Ascension Health will evaluate the feasibility of the business concepts and will invite those teams that they believe have a viable concept to engage in a formal relationship. If both sides are excited about formalizing the relationship, Ascension Health will invest capital in exchange for an ownership stake in the business(es), and work together on continuing to build profitable, impactful business(es).
Why We Believe In This Approach
Ascension Health has created the Enterprising Health initiative as a way to discover new approaches to improving the health of the communities we serve. This means creating new ways to improve health beyond the services offered by hospitals and clinics. Enterprising Health was created on the premise that local community members are the best resource for finding solutions to local health challenges, and that these solutions can be delivered in the form of locally owned and operated sustainable businesses. Enterprising Health will provide business development and financial resource support to the concepts that have the best potential to succeed.
