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  5. ASTHO Awarded W.K. Kellogg Foundation Grant To Support Healthy Communities

ASTHO Awarded W.K. Kellogg Foundation Grant To Support Healthy Communities

November 30, 2018

ARLINGTON, VA—The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) received a $450,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to improve child health and family well-being through advancing community-led and place-based approaches and will support ASTHO’s 2019 President’s Challenge.

Through this project, ASTHO will position state and territorial health officials to lead multisector efforts to advance health equity by improving state readiness to implement place‐based models to build healthier, more resilient communities across the nation. Additionally, ASTHO will focus on increasing the capacity of state health agencies to implement place-based approaches by identifying evidence-based resources and promising practices to advance supportive policies and flexible funding strategies.

“Research has demonstrated the importance of zip codes as a predictor of health and the impact that place has on health outcomes,” says Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH, president of ASTHO and director of the Rhode Island Department of Health. “The role and future direction of public health is to develop and support interventions that address the social and environmental determinants of health at the community level.”

The grant will allow ASTHO to assist states and territories through a learning community so they are better prepared to tackle complex socioeconomic challenges by learning how to implement high impact, place-based policies that foster authentic community engagement and development.

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ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories and freely associated states, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice.