Cone Health, the City of Greensboro, East Market Street Development Corporation, Greensboro Housing Coalition and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) recently teamed to nominate Greensboro for Invest Health, an innovative national program to improve health in low-income neighborhoods. Invest Health is a collaboration of the Reinvestment Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at transforming how leaders from midsize American cities work together to help low-income communities thrive, with specific attention to community features that drive health, such as access to safe and affordable housing.
The Greensboro team’s proposal was one of 50 selected from 180 proposals representing 170 cities across the United States. As part of Invest Health, the team will receive a $60,000 grant, participate in a series of national conferences, and develop strategies to address the city’s pediatric asthma rate, which includes a disproportionate number of children from low-income families. More than 29 percent of children in Greensboro live in households with incomes below the poverty level, and a majority of those homes are not safe for children with asthma.