Investing in community-based entrepreneurs to overcome health disparities

社区环境在健康结果方面发挥重要作用. People living just 5 miles apart can in some cases have a difference in 预期寿命(链接在新窗口中打开) 20多年来由于经济稳定等因素, 教育, 社会影响和卫生保健.

“If we don’t address the economics of the situations that people live in, 我们将无法有效地解决健康问题,”医生说。. 基斯Churchwell, senior vice president and executive director at the Heart and Vascular Center and Transplantation Center at Yale-New Haven Health in Connecticut and chair of the 美国心脏协会’s Health Equity and Social Determinants of Health Task Force.

“邮政编码和健康之间有直接的联系, so one way we can improve the overall health of a community is investing in entrepreneurs and innovators in those communities to create initiatives that promote healthy behaviors and increase access to good health,他说.

通过其2018年授权服务城市卫生加速器, 美国心脏协会将提供最高30美元的资助,以社区为基础的改变行为的想法, expand access and improve long-term health by overcoming challenges in urban communities.

加速器, 在6月30日前接受申请, provides training for selected applicants in the areas of brand development, 市场营销, 策略, 客户细分和商业模式.

“把这当成一种紧张, 为社会企业提供为期八周的mba体验,克里斯塔·钱伯斯-普莱斯说, 该项目的女发言人和安娜堡分校的创始人, 密歇根的商业故事孵化器Entre-SLAM. “This is an action-oriented experience that pushes entrepreneurs to achieve the impossible.”

The initiative provides accountability to track progress and impact, Chambers-Price said.

“我们想让企业家有能力说, “我们的资源有限, 但我们可以最大化它们中的每一个来解决大问题,’”她说。.

Winners from last year’s initiative are already having an impact in their communities.

福音运行(链接在新窗口中打开), an organization that taps into urban church communities to promote fitness, will launch a 福音运行 in the nation’s capital next spring thanks to a $30,从去年的加速器中获得了000美元的资助. 这是“福音跑步”在芝加哥基地之外的第一次活动, 它的第五届年度5K预计将吸引2,6月2日将有1000人参加.

创始人Nyasha Nyamapfene说，华盛顿特区.C.此次活动将成为进一步在全国推广的典范.

“This allows us to build a community of health and faith that extends nationally,” she said.

福音运行 teams are typically formed among church members who train throughout the year to build a culture of exercise and other healthy behaviors.

“这不是一年一次的活动，”尼亚马芬说. “随着我们行为的改变，这项工作将持续一整年.”

去年获得了2万美元的资助 意味着数据库(链接在新窗口中打开), a nonprofit technology company that connects soup kitchens and homeless shelters with fresh food that would otherwise go to waste. The grant allowed the tech nonprofit to partner with Food Connect in Philadelphia to close the transportation gap that often prevents such organizations from accepting available food donations.

“Most of our food is going to agencies less than 2 miles away in the same low-income communities, 但这些机构没有办法运送它,MEANS数据库创始人玛丽亚·罗斯·贝尔丁说.

This summer, 意味着数据库 and Food Connect will coordinate with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation to deploy meals from the Summer Food Service program to local agencies.

Belding said the Accelerator offered an important opportunity for underrepresented entrepreneurs to get an idea off the ground.

“No one knows a community better than a community knows itself,” she said. “Competitions like this put the advocacy philosophy of ‘nothing for us without us’ into practice.”

马特森的塞西尔·威尔逊, 伊利诺斯州, 用了10美元,000 grant he received last year to expand the reach of his company Goffers, which employs local residents to act as personal runners for customers who lack transportation or the physical ability to pick up medications, 去杂货店或者办点别的事.

高弗斯服务于芝加哥南部地区, 四月开始, 印第安纳州西北部, 附近几乎没有新鲜食物的地方.

“我们不只是提供人们需要的东西,威尔逊说, “我们将邻居与邻居联系起来.”

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