Featured

The MANNA FoodBank Programs team has been working with partners across WNC to integrate screening for food insecurity into the clinical setting. This model has proven effective at identifying patients in need and linking them to helpful and appropriate resources. The presentation will provide information on the screening and referral process, including MANNA’s collaboration with Mission Health Partners to exchange patient name and contact information in compliance with HIPAA and other regulations.

In recent years, food councils in North Carolina have hosted candidates forums with key policy makers to both educate them on their communities’ food system needs and to connect citizens directly with their law makers. Join members of the Community Food Strategies team as we walk you through the steps outlined in our Candidates Forum Toolkit that explain how to successfully organize a candidates forum. Based on our own work with food councils and policy makers, we will share tips on candidates forum planning, logistics, and promotion. Participants will leave with the tools and confidence to organize their very own candidates forums in their communities.

The Montgomery/Richmond Healthy People, Healthy Carolinas collaboration was the first in the United States to implement “The Daily Mile,” an evidence-based intervention initially piloted in Scotland and England. On this webinar, Roxanne Elliott, with FirstHealth of the Carolinas will share the importance of collaboration, implementation strategies for launching this intervention in the United States and lessons learned. She will also highlight some Bright Spots and unexpected outcomes

Many communities across the Carolinas have had success in creating built environments that promote active lifestyles, and in doing so have seen economic and fiscal benefits. In this webinar, we highlight four communities across the Carolinas that have invested in trails, sidewalks, and other bike- and pedestrian-friendly improvements and have seen economic benefits (e.g., increased tourism, higher property values, more businesses downtown, etc.). These efforts can serve as models of success for other communities in North and South Carolina, and are important steps in both the prevention of overweight and obesity and the economic future of our states.

Community Highlights

Since 2005, the City of Spartanburg has made numerous investments in becoming more pedestrian and bike friendly, including widening sidewalks, creating new greenspaces, installing bike lanes, extending trails, and creating South Carolina’s first bike share systems, HubCycle and BCycle. The city has already seen significant economic benefits, including increases in sales in businesses downtown as well as an influx of new businesses to the city.

The City of Florence is undergoing a major downtown revitalization effort designed to create a safer, more attractive place for pedestrians. The city has improved storefronts, repaired and enhanced sidewalks, landscaped streets, and created better connectively to neighborhood trails and parks. Property values downtown have nearly tripled, and Florence has become a hot spot for private development and new business growth.

ITRE recently completed at study of the economic, health, and transportation impacts from the completion of a pedestrian bridge over I-40, which completed a critical link of the American Tobacco Trail in Durham. This presentation shares the results from launched to better understand the economic contribution of trails in North Carolina.

Granville County will present on their greenway development focusing on the importance of collaboration across the county.

December 9, 2015- Improving Health Through Policy, Audio, Dr. Adam Zolotor, NC Institute of Medicine