Vulnerable Populations

Central to Burness’ commitment to social change is our work on issues affecting vulnerable populations. Since we began our work in 1986, Burness has assisted many nonprofits in their efforts to improve the lives of our country's most vulnerable.

Our own efforts have spanned a diverse set of issues. We have partnered with organizations working in school-based health care, welfare and foster care reform, homelessness, correctional healthcare, and elder care. We have supported advocacy around language barriers in health care delivery, and solutions to rampant inner city gun violence. We have disseminated research, including key indicators of health and poverty in the nation’s cities.

In recent years, Burness has:

• Advocated for Cash and Counseling’s innovative approach to home health care, now adopted by 15 states, and available for all others to adopt.
• Shed light on the dangerously dysfunctional state of health care in jails – and on possible solutions – with Community Oriented Correctional Health Services.
• Helped tell stories of the success of CeaseFire’s groundbreaking new model for reducing urban gun violence.
• Worked with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America to disseminate data showing that where Americans live, work, live and play can often have a greater impact on health than the health care they receive.