The Bronx is one of eight winners of the 2015 RWJF Culture of Health Prize awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Prize celebrates the strides communities have made to ensure good health flourishes for all.
The Bronx is being recognized for leveraging its unique strengths and rallying community partners around a shared vision of health, including:
- The work of South Bronx Rising Together partners through the All Are Healthy Collaborative Action Network, focused on reducing child asthma-related ER visits and hospitalizations. The cross-sector group brings health care, community, government and educational leaders together to reduce child asthma triggers, beginning with a pilot approach to use Integrated Pest Management and resident education in targeted buildings.
- The Borough president’s #Not62 campaign. Bronx County is ranked in last place (62 out of 62) in the County Health Ranking & Roadmaps Report which measures important aspects of population health and the critical role that non-health related factors play in health and life expectancy. The goal of #Not62 is to bring together major stakeholders across multiple sectors to address the determinants of health, improve the health outcomes of Bronx residents, and have the Bronx move up in the county health ranking in 3-5 years.
- The New York Restoration Project which is dedicated to transforming open space in under-resourced communities to create a greener, more sustainable New York City. They bring private resources to spaces that lack adequate municipal support, fortifying the City’s aging infrastructure and creating a healthier environment for those who live in the most densely populated and least green neighborhoods.
For more details on the award, watch a short video which includes an interview with Elizabeth Clay Roy, Chief Strategy Officer for Phipps Neighborhoods and Co-Director of South Bronx Rising Together.
The Bronx was selected from more than 340 applications across the country. The other seven winning communities are Bridgeport, CT; Everett, MA; Kansas City, MO; Lawrence, MA; Menominee Nation, WI; Spartanburg County, SC, and Waaswaaganing Anishinaabeg (Lac du Flambeau Tribe),WI.
The Bronx will receive $25,000 in recognition of its commitment to building a Culture of Health and South Bronx Rising Together will receive a portion of that prize. It will be used to continue the pilot to identify asthma hotspots and support holistic, evidence-based interventions to reduce child asthma. Schools, Community Based Organizations, the Department of Health and community leaders have been involved – alongside health care institutions Urban Health Plan, Montefiore Health System, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center and Mt. Sinai Hospital.
About South Bronx Rising Together
Phipps Neighborhoods, in partnership with The Children’s Aid Society, launched South Bronx Rising Together, a collective impact effort in the South Bronx focused on the creation of a cradle to career pipeline for all children and youth in the community. After bringing together over 300 community stakeholders, including providers, elected officials and residents, South Bronx Rising Together has identified seven specific goals that they are working to achieve to bring about educational and economic success in the South Bronx Community District 3. The goals are:
- All children are healthy
- All enter kindergarten excited and ready to learn
- All succeed in school
- All contribute positively to the community
- All graduate from high school, college and career-ready
- All attain post-secondary degree or credential
- All begin a career
Learn more at risingtogether.org.