The Anchor Learning Network is a joint project of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU), a national organization dedicated to connecting urban universities and their community partners, and The Democracy Collaborative, and is supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It builds on the success of the Higher Education Anchor Mission Initiative, a year-long pilot program launched in 2018, in bringing colleges and universities together to jointly explore how they can adopt an anchor mission: using their place-based assets—educational and operational—to advance the well-being of the communities they call home.

Hospitals and health systems, particularly nonprofit ones, are challenged with providing top healthcare in ever changing and challenging financial, regulatory, and service environments. They manage thousands of staff and provide care to nearly every American at some point in their lives. Given these