This Letter from the Executive Director comes at a busy time in the life of our organization and at a critical moment in the history of our struggle.

In June we conducted the 2011 National HCH Conference & Policy Symposium, where 700+ HCH consumers, providers, advocates and high-level Federal officials addressed health reform's promises and challenges for people without homes. The inclusive, welcoming spirit that has long characterized our gatherings was much in evidence, and the content and quality of the two plenary sessions, four Pre-Conference Institutes and seventy workshops were extraordinary. For sessions that you missed, slide presentations are currently being posted on our website. Many thanks to our fine presenters, to our HRSA funders, and to Conference Planner Wade Munday and the many volunteers, staff and participants who made another great conference. Please plan to join us in May 15-18, 2012, in Kansas City.

The annual gathering also included a Congressional Briefing in which staff from 20 Representatives' offices heard from Rep. Alycee Hastings, a committed advocate for health care justice; Dr. Bob Donovan, the new President of the Council; Joseph Benson of the National Consumer Advisory Board Steering Committee; Dr. Allan Ainsworth, founder of Fourth Street Clinic in Salt Lake City; and myself. Numerous conference participants visited Congressional offices to insist that HCH and other Health Center funding be increased, that Medicaid not be capped or block granted, and that states be required to maintain their current level of effort in Medicaid. A spirited NCAB rally outside Union Station made loud public statements about social and economic justice.

The time is critical because of the political dialogue centering on the federal deficit, and the possibility that severe budget cuts will undo the health reform victories already won for very poor people. Even as we are working mightily to prepare HCH organizations to implement the reforms (by making meaningful use of electronic health records, or by becoming primary care medical/health homes), and to help policy makers understand HCH care integration as a great model for emerging delivery systems, we are fighting to preserve our major gains of the last year. What is more, we continue to insist on the still larger gains that will be won with the implementation of national single-payer health care financing.

This brief letter cannot begin to catalogue all that the National HCH Council is producing and accomplishing to advance our cause. To learn more, please look through the new consolidated Council newsletter that includes this Letter. To find even more, please visit our very informative website at www.nhchc.org.

Your gifts make our work possible. Please, if you can, make a financial contribution at www.nhchc.org/donate.