Press release from UNC Asheville:
The city of Asheville has been selected by Reinvestment Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to take part in the new Invest Health initiative. The innovative, national program brings together diverse leaders from mid-sized U.S. cities and aims to improve health in low-income neighborhoods. It will be implemented in 50 cities across the nation.
“Invest Health is a great opportunity for the City of Asheville to engage in the intersection of community development and public health. Through this vibrant and innovative community collaborative, we look forward to working with area partners to address health inequities in Asheville and creating long-term, sustainable solutions for our shared community,” said Heather Dillashaw, City of Asheville community development manager.
Asheville was selected from more than 180 teams from 170 communities that applied to the initiative. Cities with populations between 50,000 and 400,000 were asked to form five-member teams including representatives from the public sector, community development, and an anchor institution, preferably academic or health-related.
UNC Asheville, through its North Carolina Center for Health and Wellness, will be the anchor institution working with a five-member cross-sector team with the City of Asheville, Self-Help Credit Union, Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) and the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville.
“We’re thrilled to collaborate on this initiative to improve the health and well-being of our local community,” said Stacey Millett, executive director of the North Carolina Center for Health and Wellness at UNC Asheville. “We’ll work directly with communities in Asheville to explore solutions and hopefully inform the national conversation about how to best invest to achieve health equity in more communities throughout the U.S.”
The project will span 18 months, beginning with a national kick-off meeting on June 7. The team received a $60,000 grant to support its participation in Invest Health, funded through a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Reinvestment Fund.
“With a long history in community development finance, we are excited to help create a pipeline to channel capital into low-income communities through public and private investments,” said Amanda High, chief of strategic initiatives at Reinvestment Fund. “Our goal is to transform how cities approach tough challenges, share lessons learned and spur creative collaboration.”
A full list of awardees and more information is available at www.investhealth.org.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.