WHO WE ARE
Our mission is to serve those in Marinette and Menominee counties.
OUR FORMATION
The Provident Health Foundation got its start as a recognition of the special relationship between the community and its local hospital. An Aurora Healthcare minority partnership in 2014 provided Bay Area Medical Center with access to a number of large system benefits, including support in building the $135 million new hospital. After five years, the BAMC board agreed to become wholly owned by Advocate-Aurora, a transition that took place in 2019, with the creation of Aurora Medical Center - Bay Area.
The final agreement negotiated by the BAMC Board resulted in Advocate Aurora Health contributing $25 million to create a new local foundation. The foundation was to be governed by a board of local residents of Marinette and Menominee Counties, who would determine how the funds would be invested and distributed. That board named John Hofer as its first Executive Director. Hofer had previously held a similar role with the BAMC Foundation for ten years.
The purpose of the Provident Health Foundation is to improve and sustain the health and well being of the people who live in Marinette and Menominee Counties and ensure them access to affordable quality acute hospital care.
OUR PURPOSE
We will support the local acute care hospital’s charitable mission
SUPPORT
We will advance initiatives that promote health and well being as well as addressing the determinants of health in these counties. This will be done through collaboration with and support of community partners, leaders and stakeholders committed to those same goals.
COLLABORATION
We will have a priority interest in populations who are at greatest risk for poor health and who face barriers to obtaining reliable, quality health care.
populations
We will depend on our community to help us identify and prioritize the programs and needs where our resources would be best directed to achieve our goals.
COMMUNITY
PARTNERSHIPS
We will partner with businesses, grant makers and individuals who share our desire to support and contribute to the health and well-being of our communities.
PROVIDENT HEALTH
FOUNDATION STORY
The Provident Health Foundation was created in 2019 as part of the final agreement between Advocate Aurora Health and Bay Area Medical Center that made the hospital a wholly-owned member of the Advocate Aurora system with a big vision for community health.
John Hofer
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
THE STORY BEHIND THE NAME
PROVIDENT
Menominee, Michigan was one of the leading lumber centers of the country in 1889. Mills lined the banks of the Menominee River and logging camps were scattered around the surrounding countryside. There were frequent accidents in the lumber camps, but there was no hospital nearby to offer help and care.
Perturbed by this lack of medical care, some of the town’s people came together to plan what could be done to improve the situation. They determined the best option was to provide Menominee with a good hospital.
The people in Menominee had heard about the Franciscan nursing Sisters at the Delta County Hospital in Escanaba.
They decided to present their plans for establishing a hospital in Menominee to the Franciscan nursing sisters. The Sisters accepted the idea favorably, telling the delegation from Menominee that they would assist in the endeavors to establish this institution.
To make the venture a success, the group of citizens who intended to carry out the hospital plan formed the Bay Shore Provident Hospital Association. They bought a two-story hotel with nine rooms, known as the Montreal House in Menominee’s West End, which they remodeled into a hospital, naming it The Providence Hospital. To raise funds, they sold tickets to the lumbermen for nine dollars each, which entitled the bearer to one admission to the hospital when sick or injured.
We selected the name “Provident Health Foundation” to continue the legacy of improving our community’s health, health access, and health equity like that group of concerned citizens did so many years ago. We hope to honor and expound on their work.
