 Applications
for Health Equity Fund are open!
The Center for Health Equity, in
partnership with The Community Foundation of Louisville, The Humana Foundation,
Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence and Metro United Way, recently announced
they would be accepting applications for the first ever Health Equity Fund. In
its first round, two $20,000 awards will be granted to local nonprofits within
Louisville Metro who are dedicated to fostering equitable health outcomes
through collaborative and community-based work.
Specifically, this first round of awardees will focus on the issue
of education as it relates to equitable health outcomes.
Education is just one of the 11 root causes highlighted in the Center for
Health Equity’s recently released 2017 Health Equity Report. Education was
chosen based on the overwhelming response from community engagement with over
200 residents regarding which root cause they would like to see prioritized.
Because of the many intersections between education and the other
root causes addressed in the Health Equity Report, organizations which address
education in tandem with other root causes are strongly encouraged to apply. This
could mean working towards addressing student hunger, providing access to
classroom technology or focusing on early childhood development. Other issues
brought up during community engagement were equitable student agency within
curriculum and administrative decision-making, as well as an emphasis on the
need to strengthen informal education opportunities outside of the classroom.
Applications will be judged on
how effectively a program proposes to address barriers to education. The
assessment process will also take into account how an organization approaches
community engagement and whether their program is addressing a stated community
need. Overall, an organization will need to show how they will sustainably use
the funds to better the lives of Jefferson County residents, while being
intentional about how their work will contribute to equity.
The Health Equity Fund began as
the $25,000 Culture of Health award given to Louisville Metro in 2016 by the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Foundation stated that it was particularly
impressed with how well group’s in Louisville “work to put good health within
one’s reach”. The Louisville Culture of Health team, including Center for
Health Equity, came to the conclusion that the best way to spend the award
money would be to invest in the community health efforts for which the city was
praised. The initial award money was soon joined by additional contributions by
the local funders, growing to a current total of $150,000.
Applications can be found on the
Center for Health Equity’s web page. All applications will be due by March 5th,
with recipients of the funds to be notified by the end of that month.
 Health
Equity Breakfast
On February 9th, the Center for Health Equity
joined Metro United Way at The Olmstead for breakfast to discuss our newly
released Health Equity Report.
Panelists gathered to discuss how the report's
evidence-based recommendations could be used to form strategic partnerships to combat those inequities across Louisville.
Among many findings, the report shows that there is a 12.6
year difference in life expectancy for residents in parts of east and west
Louisville.
The report documents the root causes of why such vast differences
exist for 21 health outcomes across our community. These reasons include
differences in access to food systems, health and human services, employment
and income, education, transportation, early childhood development,
environmental quality, and the built environment.
Speakers included:
- Theresa Reno-Weber, Metro United Way
- Dr. Sarah Moyer, Louisville Metro
Department of Public Health & Wellness
- Trisha Finnegan, Community Foundation of
Louisville
- Jeff Polson, Jewish Heritage Fund for
Excellence
- Mark Carter, Passport Health Plan
- Nikki Jackson, Federal Reserve Bank of St
Louis
- Walter D. Woods, The Humana Foundation
Aja Barber also spoke on behalf of Dr. Brandy Kelly-Pryor
(who has just welcomed a brand new baby) at the Center for Health Equity to
explain the layout, features, and changes made to the report. She also invited
attendees and any organizations across Jefferson County who might be interested
to reach out if they were interested in scheduling a presentation to learn more
about the report.
Interested parties can also download the full report at www.HealthEquityReport.com.
If you are interested in having CHE come to your
organization, please feel free to contact us at healthequity@louisvilleky.gov
 What We're Reading
89.3 WFPL: The Next Louisville Series
The Next Louisville project is a
collaboration between WFPL News and the Community Foundation of Louisville,
exploring issues of consequence to our city and its future. In 2018, we are
examining concentrated poverty -- what it is, the factors contributing to it,
and how people and institutions are trying to change it. Learn more about The
Next Louisville Series here.
The foster care system was unprepared for the
last drug epidemic—let’s not repeat history
Read
the full article here
‘Automating Inequality’: Algorithms in Public
Services Often Fail the Most Vulnerable
Read
the full article here
Stress: The Privilege of health
Read the full article here
 The
Center for Health Equity welcomes three new employees
Mahogany Mayfield – Youth Council Program
Coordinator
Mahogany returns to the CHE family after working
with the Racial Equity Youth Council during the summer of 2017. She brings
fresh ideas and is particularly excited to continue the innovative and
transformative work of the youth that she's had an opportunity to work with.
Mahogany hopes to shift the culture around youth
and the ways we empower them to create change. She is committed to providing
support for youth who wish to spark authentic, meaningful change. She also strives to create trainings and research that not only inspire youth, but will equip them with the resources they need -and deserve - to lead and live
healthy and fulfilling lives.
Mahogany believes that we all have a
responsibility to help youth build a sense of agency. She believes that
when we encourage youth and provide them with opportunities to use their
brilliance, we better equip them to influence policies and advocate for their own physical and mental health. -- which will make them much more informed and empowered to build safer communities when they become adults..
Clayton Oeth – Policy Analyst
Clayton Oeth (pronounced oath) moved to
Louisville from Evansville, Indiana. He holds a Master of Science Public
Policy and Management from Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon.
Clayton would like to use his role to shape
substantive policy around public health in an equitable way.
He believes that policy is the most
effective approach toward creating solutions that measurably reduce
poor health outcomes among vulnerable populations. Oeth also believes that
one of the best ways to prevent much of the systemic and
inter-generational inequity we see today is by making sure that we create
better access to policy education, address structural power
dynamics, and provide equitable representation in the decision-making
process before adopting or putting new policies into practice.
Monica Leslie – Community Engagement Coordinator
Monica Leslie comes to the Center for Health
Equity from the innovation sector. In addition to her previous worked as a user
experience researcher and online course designer, she has a background in
economic development, urban planning, and community organizing.
She hopes to use her role to give the
residents who have experienced Louisville’s worst health outcomes more of
voice throughout the decision-making and implementation of community
initiatives.
Monica believes that we can learn a lot from
listening to our neighbors about the kinds of barriers they face. She
believes that working with good information produces better outcomes – and that
when we make an intentional effort to include those who are most impacted,
it makes it easier to accurately identify where our most vulnerable
populations slip through the cracks.
She believes that a better Louisville is
possible, but that creating a culture of accountability, accessibility,
and equitable inclusion requires us to measure whether our efforts align with
residents' feedback.
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