KidOne
April 11, 2025
“You can have healthcare facilities. You can have insurance. But if you don’t have transportation in rural Alabama, and it’s 30 miles away, it might as well be 1,000 miles away,” said Matt Holdbrooks, president of KidOne.
That’s where Holdbrooks’ organization comes in. Operating 19 vehicles across 38 of Alabama’s 67 counties, KidOne provides safe, reliable transportation so expectant mothers and children can reach their medical appointments, which may be the next county over or a couple of hours away.
A child who needs dialysis in Alabama, for example, will likely have to travel to a Birmingham, Ala., hospital for treatment, whether they live a few miles from the facility or in a county next to Tennessee. KidOne is ready to help in either scenario.
Holdbrooks used Ascension Foundation funds to advance a key organizational priority – retaining and attracting the talent necessary to provide this vital service. The Foundation’s support allowed him to move quicker, without cutting into other strategic needs.
Holdbrooks used Ascension Foundation funds to advance a key organizational priority – retaining and attracting the talent necessary to provide this vital service. The Foundation’s support allowed him to move quicker, without cutting into other strategic needs.
“Healthcare access is a challenge, not just in Alabama, but throughout the nation,” he said. “That’s why I applaud these guys. They come in and they’re trying to find the solutions.”
At a recent #GOALS session, a seventh-grade boy leaned over to Kress and said, "I'm really good at sutures. I'm going to be a PA [physician assistant] one day." Kress asked if he had known what a PA was before that day.
"And he said, 'No, but I'm going to do it.' …" Kress recalled.
Thoughtful discernment – to launch systemic change
From the beginning, Ascension leadership understood national change would not happen through “cookie-cutter approaches,” Foshage said. They envisioned connecting with other like-minded national partners – individuals and organizations – to support local, community-based solutions. Ascension might then have the opportunity to spread successful responses from one state to another
Leaders also knew this wasn’t a short-term commitment, and they were purposeful about taking time to develop the right structure and focus areas.
“One of the habits I had to break when I came out of public accounting and went into not-for-profit healthcare was moving really fast, at warp speed,” Foshage said. “I learned early on from the Daughters of Charity and from the Sisters of Saint Joseph the value in taking time for discernment, taking time to listen to a lot of different voices to ensure whatever the good work that we’re delivering is meeting the right needs and is doing so in the right way.”
“I’m very used to Ascension going slow at the beginning of an initiative to then move fast, because we want to make sure we get it right. We want a lot of voices to be heard,” she added.
