Healthy Neighborhoods Fund

New York State Health Foundation

The New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth) and New York Community Trust (NYCT) collaborated on the Healthy Neighborhoods initiative in order to address underlying problems that have affected the health of New York State communities and help them become places that are healthier and more active. Through this initiative, NYSHealth is supporting six communities across the state. Healthy Places by Design 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 sustainability.

Our support has included:

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

Through the learning collaborative, coordinators and their partners have gained critical knowledge, exchanged best practices, and built their confidence to take bold, decisive action and sustain their impact.

Healthy Places by Design has underscored the importance of resident leadership for sustaining impact. One of our organization’s focus areas is accelerating action in communities. Through the learning collaborative, coordinators and their partners have gained critical knowledge, exchanged best practices, and built their confidence to take bold, decisive action and sustain their impact. One of the Healthy Neighborhoods sites, Brownsville, Brooklyn, has embraced this approach by building resident and youth leadership capacity into efforts to grow and distribute fresh and healthy produce in the community.

 

“Having Healthy Places by Design as a partner has enabled us to hold a mirror up to what we need, and you have challenged or affirmed what’s needed for the grantees. Your team anticipates needs, and always makes things seem effortless and easy, so we don’t even worry about it.”

Nupur Chaudhury, Program Officer, NYSHealth