Healthy Neighborhoods Fund

NEW YORK STATE HEALTH FOUNDATION

The New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) and New York Community Trust (NYCT) collaborated to launch the Healthy Neighborhoods initiative in order to address underlying problems that have affected the health of New York State communities and to support them to become places that are healthier and more active. Through this initiative, NYSHealth is supporting six communities across the State. Healthy Places by Design has worked closely with both funders to co-develop, coordinate, and facilitate a flexible peer learning collaborative that meets the sites’ current and emergent learning needs and lays a foundation for their leadership and the sustainability of their work.

Our support has included:

• strategic planning sessions with NYCT and NYSHealth staff;
• bimonthly one-on-one technical assistance calls;
• facilitating four in-person learning meetings;
• bimonthly peer virtual exchange sessions; and
• producing a biweekly e-newsletter with links to funding opportunities and resources that can inform the sites’ work.

Healthy Places by Design has underscored the importance that lifting resident leaders has in ensuring sustainability of the initiative’s impacts. One of our organization’s goals is to identify and support emerging leaders by helping build their confidence to take bold, decisive action and their capacity to sustain it. One of the Healthy Neighborhoods sites, Niagara Falls, has embraced this approach by building in resident leadership from the start. Its team intentionally worked with community members early on, going as far as to formally engage residents to determine, coordinate, and implement the work.

 

“The most (pleasantly) surprising thing I’ve learned from collaborating with Healthy Places by Design on our Healthy Neighborhoods Fund initiative has been watching grantees from different organizations work together beyond formal learning collaborative structures. Examples have included everything from a “gentrification happy hour” to groups conducting their own site visits to learn from one another firsthand. And I know they will continue to find new ways to connect long after our funding ends.”

BRONWYN STARR
Program Officer, New York State Health Foundation

 

“Resident capacity is boundless. Our collective stories and experiences spark focused ideas that are re-imagined through projects implemented within the community… I’ve learned that our community is viewed through many different lenses, and I must understand them to communicate effectively to do “the work.” Patience and persistence are necessary skills and a work in progress for us all. I also want to highlight my co-leader Keyona Dunn. She has love for her community but prefers to work in the background, though she has lately taken on more of a leadership role.”

BRIAN ARCHIE
Co-Chair, Create a Healthier Niagara Falls Collaborative
Chairman of the Human Rights Commission, City Of Niagara Falls