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Health is one of six key priorities for the Community Foundation, based on findings from the Community Counts indicators report and on data about the effect of health issues on quality of life in our region. We are currently involved in a number of projects and initiatives related to this Community Health, coordinated by Community Investment Manager Webb Lyons.
The Jefferson County Department of Health established the Health Action Partnership in 2007 as a collaboration with community organizations, including the Community Foundation. The goal is to improve community health by putting into practice what citizens said they wanted, as expressed in Jefferson County's Community Roadmap to Health.
Health Action is divided into four strategic issue areas: Healthy Lifestyles, Livable Communities, Access to Care and Public Policy. The Community Foundation chairs the Public Policy area, coordinating the development and advancement of policy recommendations.
The Community Foundation also works with the Health Department and Health Action Partners to identify specific grants and initiatives. In 2009, $133,000 in grants from the JCDH Public Health Fund at the Community Foundation were awarded for specific projects in Eastern Birmingham and across Jefferson County.
The Community Foundation and the Birmingham YMCA serve as co-chairs of Pioneering Healthier Communities, an initiative of YMCA of USA to increase healthy eating and active living through local policy and environmental change. Work began in 2008 with the selection and training of a team of community leaders and continues as the group looks for opportunities to incorporate the goals of Pioneering Healthier Communities into the Public Policy Issue Area of Health Action. On example early in 2009 was the group's involvement in rallying support for street paving guidelines that would make it easier for bicycle traffic.
The Community Foundation serves as local partner for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Ladder to Leadership initiative, designed to select 40 emerging health leaders in Jefferson County. These leaders will become Robert Wood Johnson Fellows and receive 16-month leadership development training valued at $17,000.
Responding to a separate RWJ Foundation effort, the Community Foundation drew together nonprofit organizations in Jefferson County to submit a comprehensive, collaborative application for a $360,000 grant over four years. If received, the grant will provide support for a proposal that involves implementing healthy eating and active living through policy and environmental change, with a particular focus on reducing childhood obesity. After the first stage of the application was complete, United Way of Central Alabama took on the role as lead agency on behalf of Health Action Partnership. | 
