Charlotte, NC, was last among 50 U.S. cities in upward mobility because of inter-generational poverty, low educational attainment, and health disparities. This project aims to improve mobility by addressing disparities, enhancing local capacity, advancing partnerships, and improving preventative healthcare access. In addition, workforce training and mentoring to improve earning potential, reduce use of high-cost services, and reinforce family stability will also be a focus.
The goal is to improve upward mobility by addressing disparities, enhancing local community capacity, and improving access to preventative health services. The collaborative vision includes strengthening local partnerships among employers, educational organizations, and health systems, and advancing the financial stability and quality of resident life.
BUILD and its communities apply bold, upstream, integrated, local, and data-driven (BUILD) approaches to improve health in communities that are adversely affected by upstream factors.
This project will increase residential capacity to advocate for changes to address whole person health. Needs for more efficient transportation to connect residents to health services and job training, will be presented to political leaders and the Charlotte Area Transportation System in particular. By tackling employment, transportation, and healthcare, the project can have greater systems level impact.
Increasing social capital by strengthening community ties through advocacy creates a culture of total health. In this project, care is linked to access to healthy foods, better public transportation and utilization of the new school for recreation and exercise. Building Uplifted Families moves “health” away from a clinical understanding to an ecological one that links the individual to interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy factors.
This project’s Partners Advisory Board is the nexus for both traditional and emerging roles among partners, and serves as a platform for aligning this effort with other community efforts.
Residents have the leading voice in solving family and community issues by helping to determine the strategies for effectively addressing them. Residents participate in a Community Engagement Committee in addressing ongoing services and events to raise awareness of key subjects and build community involvement.
Various forms of data are collected to identify community health needs, evaluate success over time, and inform implementation. Clinical data from partnering health systems and FQHCs are aggregated to the census tract. And a Project Advisory Board provides oversight in the protection of data and program participants.
