Alamance Wellness Collaborative

Impact Alamance

Healthy Places by Design co-facilitated a county-level group, the Alamance Wellness Collaborative, to support built environment changes that increase opportunities for community members to achieve their full health potential. In partnership with Impact Alamance and Healthy Alamance, our team leveraged our national network to identify technical experts and invite them to train local leaders on issues that were most relevant to residents’ priorities.

In 2018, we coached Collaborative members to address policy change in ways they didn’t previously know they could. For example, advocacy work had been associated with picket signs and highly visible events: big, loud, and public. We helped Collaborative members identify other routes, like having a local mother speak before city council and helping parks and recreation staff members advocate within their department. Due in part to these shifts in thinking, and with content support from our team, the city of Burlington in Alamance County passed a Health in All Policies resolution in February 2018. And, more recently, a tobacco-free policy in all Burlington parks went into effect on April 1, 2019.

 

“We have been working with Healthy Places by Design for 5 years, and their team is always thinking strategically about how to move our work forward. This past year was a transformational one for our local Wellness Collaborative. Members of the group went from understanding the principals of policy, systems, and environmental change to actually implementing these strategies in their cities and towns. Three municipalities adopted tobacco-free policies, and one city voted to undertake a major investment in a greenway that will connect local resources. I have no doubt we would not be seeing these successes if it weren’t for the guidance and leadership of Healthy Places by Design.”

MARCY GREEN
Program Director, Impact Alamance

 

“The process for guiding a community towards design rooted in health is long term work, and reshaping perceptions of equity to create spaces that support neighborhoods lacking infrastructure is complex. We couldn’t accomplish our goals without the support and expertise of Healthy Places by Design.”

ANN MELETZKE
Director, Impact Alamance

 

“A critical aspect of the Collaborative’s success has been the convening of truly interdisciplinary working teams in communities: elected and appointed board members, staff in planning, health, public works and engineering, schools, parks, housing, transit and economic development, advocates, and the business community. This allows communities to think about much more than just one-time events and short-term programs; these teams can [go on to] address policies and practices that define their residents’ everyday environments.”

MARK FENTON
Public Health, Planning, and Transportation Consultant