The Health Collaborative

Danville Regional Foundation

Healthy Places by Design continued to deepen our work with the Danville Regional Foundation (DRF)’s Health Collaborative, a group of passionate, multi-sector community leaders committed to improving health in the Dan River Region, by providing strategic thought partnership around health equity. Our support included capacity building to expand health goals and strategies with residents and professionals in Caswell and Pittsylvania Counties, with plans to deepen the region’s equity work in 2019.

Our team has also supported DRF’s efforts to increase internal capacity to address equity. To date, Health Collaborative staff have attended the Racial Equity Institute (REI) Phase I training. There are additional plans to introduce the training to more members of the Health Collaborative, with a commitment from DRF to support any member who wants to take the training. This “little systems change” will build regional capacity to understand and address equity. The impact on individual leaders has also been profound; during a Health Collaborative meeting, one member stood up and said, “This training changed how I view everything about my job.”

 

“The REI training was pivotal in reframing how I approach the work of the Health Collaborative. The combination of historical data and participants’ experiences gave critical context to our region’s health equity report, and will inform the strategies we undertake as a community to address systemic inequities.” 

ALEXIS EHRHARDT
President and CEO, Chamber of Commerce, Danville and Pittsylvania County

 

“Though we’re early in our journey, we are starting to see members of The Health Collaborative truly integrate equity into their organizational practices and policies, including changing hiring practices, sharing decision making, and re-allocating resources. With the help of Healthy Places by Design, we hope to take our equity work to the next level with the development of a health equity leadership program. This program would develop a diverse group of local leaders who understand best practices for achieving health equity and have the knowledge, skills, courage, and supports to build more equitable organizations and neighborhoods.”

ANNIE MARTINIE
Senior Program Officer, Danville Regional Foundation