“Up for the Challenge”: The 2025 Connect Summit
On May 7 & 8, 2025 we hosted our fifth annual user conference, Connect: A Social Care Summit, for a network of more than 1,270 change-makers: leaders from social care, healthcare, government, nonprofits, and more, dedicated to making a difference. We’re excited to share our bold, hopeful vision for what’s next: A smarter safety net, built on trusted infrastructure, powered by technology, and shaped through deep partnership.
Every day, communities across the country are stepping up to connect people with the resources they need, and Findhelp is here to support that work at scale. This year’s event may be over but our work to connect all people in need and the programs that serve them, with dignity and ease, continues. It’s not just about referrals. It’s about real outcomes, real people, and a system that grows stronger every time we show up together.
“We know Findhelp is always up for the challenge, and so are we.”
Andrea Wanat
CEO, Value Network of Western NY
Keep learning: Featured sessions and keynotes
We’re joined in our work to power a smarter social safety net by hundreds of social care innovators who are using people, policy, and technology to address the barriers to care and the challenges faced by organizations who want to help.
Today we’re spotlighting a few of the forward-looking Connect Summit sessions that envision a smarter safety net. These sessions empowered attendees to advocate for systemic change and inspired them to innovative community solutions to address the social determinants of health (SDoH).
Want access to watch all the 2025 sessions? Chat with our team!
SDoH scalability and sustainability in a value-based world
Mallory Callahan (Vice President of Value-Based Care) and Adam Schulte (Medicare Programs Manager) discuss Nebraska Health Network’s approach to integrating Community Health Workers (CHWs) into their healthcare initiatives, focusing on screening and addressing SDoH.
- They explore strategies for moving beyond traditional fee-for-service reimbursement models to enhance the sustainability of SDoH projects within their accountable care organization (ACO).
- Additionally, they highlight the importance of Z code capture in patient care, as well as key workflows, metrics, and strategies for scaling and sustaining these efforts.
“We need to be able to show that coordinated care is impacting our overall per-member-per-month spend, that our emergency department utilization is decreasing for non-emergent needs, and that our inpatient stays are more coordinated with more timely discharge.”
Mallory Callahan
Vice President of Value-Based Care
Leveraging 211 & United Way partnerships
See how United Way of Treasure Valley and Trinity Health West Michigan have leveraged their partnerships with 211 to enhance community outcomes.
- Anne Wolverton (Director of Community Impact) discusses how United Way of Treasure Valley’s partnership approach emphasizes the creation of strong, meaningful relationships with community organizations that drive impactful outcomes.
- Michael Ramsey (Program Implementation Coordinator) shares how Trinity Health West Michigan’s Call 211 collaboration allows for immediate referral connections to address emergent or acute situations in the community, providing timely support to neighbors in need.
Medicaid transformation: Insights from state directors
In this keynote, Medicaid Directors from Tennessee, New Mexico, and Arkansas provide a deep dive into the evolving landscape of their state programs.
- With a focus on addressing SDoH and whole-person care to improve beneficiary outcomes, the panelists explore recent innovative initiatives (including 1115 waivers), address the pressing challenges facing Medicaid today, and outline future priorities.
- Learn from these different perspectives and gain a comprehensive understanding of the strategies driving Medicaid’s adaptation in a rapidly-changing healthcare environment.
“The way people are showing up isn’t going to change. This is the solution to help people; it’s the right thing to do.”
Dana Flannery
Medicaid Director
Connecting Medicaid members to Section 1115 services
Learn how Community Care Cooperative (C3) ACO partners with federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) to connect members to housing and food services with Findhelp.
- Annie Pham (Director of Social Health) and Lily Nguyen (Senior Program Coordinator of Social Health), share how they engaged over 500 staff members, including Community Health Workers and Care Coordinators, to conduct HRSN screenings. They trained these staff to use the Findhelp platform and addressed challenges to continue increasing user adoption.
- From 2019 to 2024, C3 expanded the use of Findhelp to support referrals for nutrition and housing services for 17,000 members, as part of Massachusetts’s Section 1115 Waiver demonstration. They continue to use Findhelp for the current demonstration which launched in January 2025.
Home is worth fighting for: Kīpuka from Findhelp Films
In the face of soaring costs and rapid development, Kīpuka tells the story of KEY Project, a grassroots community center in Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu, that offers more than services—it offers belonging.
- Through the voices of youth, elders, and community leaders, the film reveals a deeper truth: Hawai‘i’s real beauty is the resilience of its people and their commitment to protecting land, culture, and community.
- Get a sneak peek of this short documentary that explores the deep connections between land, culture, and community in Hawai‘i.
- Watch a live Q&A session with Jim Tuttle, the film’s director, and Rainbow Uliʻi, Executive Director of KEY Project.
Reducing hospitalizations and disparities in a Medicare ACO
Maureen Pike (Director of Social and Clinical Care Integration), Lauren Smith (Program Consultant), and Zakiya Suleman (Program Consultant) share how diverse Trinity Health divisions have collaborated since 2021 to reduce preventable hospitalization rates among Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) patients.
- Dually enrolled Medicare-Medicaid patients historically face worse health outcomes and higher costs, aligning with national trends.
- To address this, Trinity Health integrated Community Health Workers into care teams alongside nurse managers, social workers, and pharmacists, focusing on heart failure management—the leading driver of preventable hospitalizations.
- From June 2023 to November 2024, MSSP Preventable Hospitalization rates dropped 6%, with a 14% reduction for dually enrolled patients, narrowing the disparity by 30%.
Fireside chat with Findhelp’s Customer Advisory Board
Andrea Wanat (CEO of Value Network of Western NY), Jamie Radick (Director of SDoH at Highmark Health), and Luke Harris (Sr. Director of Operations and Population Health at Children’s Mercy) share the strategies, lessons learned, and tips that have made their social care programs successful.
- These innovators discuss their organization’s Findhelp implementation journeys, including what they know now and wish they knew earlier.
- They discuss their perspectives on social care opportunities in 2025 (and beyond), and how they educate their leadership about what social care work is (and isn’t).
“Findhelp has come a long way, and we have an opportunity to do great things together and help a lot of people.”
Jamie Radick
Director of SDoH
Integrating SDoH screenings and community partnerships
An expert panel of leaders from NYC Health + Hospitals, Cooper University Health Care, and Star Community Health explore the role of SDoH screening tools in enhancing care for underserved populations.
- Community Health Workers (CHWs) and navigators play a critical role in this process, conducting screenings that identify pressing social needs.
- By leveraging their Findhelp platforms and integrating them with their EHR, these organizations are able to create streamlined, data-driven workflows that connect patients to community-based organizations (CBOs) and other resources.
The most engaged Connect Summit yet
The Connect Summit is Findhelp’s annual user conference, where our customers, partners, and network of community organizations come together to share ideas and best practices for innovating and improving social care.
Since 2020, we’ve brought together leaders from across industries to discuss strategic initiatives to help the most vulnerable members of our communities. This year, the Connect Summit saw:
2,066 registrations
450+ organizations
512 Expo Hall visits
50 states + D.C. represented
Thank you to this year’s sponsors:
Building a smarter safety net, together
Want to learn how your organization can implement the social care programs and strategies highlighted above? Chat with our team to learn more about how Findhelp’s products, services, and integrations can streamline your workflows so you can help more people.
Whether you’re just getting started with your social care strategy or looking to expand a successful program, Findhelp is your trusted partner.
