In 2018, OCDCA and the CareSource Foundation launched the Empowering Communities Grant Challenge, an opportunity that provided funding for innovative solutions to unique community challenges that involve the social determinants of health. Five organizations participated in the experiment. They spent late 2018 through 2019 implementing their ideas, and learned a lot in the process.

Join three of the groups as they share their process, idea, and outcomes, and the implications for funding.

Presenters:
Amber Jones, MPH, Director, Community Health, Old Brooklyn CDC
Carmen Kuula, Director of Community Development Services, Ashtabula County CAA
Dan Vorisek, Resilient Communities Coach, Rural Action

More Information:

Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation was funded $80,0000 to reorient its organization, partnerships, and service delivery around root causes of community health: the social determinants of health.

Ashtabula County Community Action Agency was funded $58,000 and will collaborate with the Ashtabula Area City School (AACS) District and local community leaders and partners to create a Community Learning Center (CLC) within the district. The purpose of the CLC is to address the non-academic conditions that negatively affect a student’s ability to come to school “ready-to-learn.”

Rural Action was funded $61,000 to launch the Empowering Rural Communities for a Culture of Health proposal, which aims to improve local community leadership across the county and networking capacity to affect desired change within the Social Determinants of Health related to environment, safety, isolation, healthy food access, and economic opportunity.

Learn more about Empowering Communities. Read the executive summary of the program evaluation or the full program impact evaluation.