Healthier By Design

One of the truisms of improving community health is this: the greatest opportunities lie in making the healthy choice the easy choice. This is the essence of healthy community design. Choice is made either more or less difficult through the adaptation of policies, systems or environments. In FY20, highlights included:

• Engaging and connecting unlikely partners to support more accessible and affordable housing. Vitalyst was fortunate to collaborate with many partners including Greater Phoenix Leadership, Arizona Housing Coalition/Arizona Multihousing Association, health care insurers, hospitals, HomeMatters, Arizona Urban Land Institute, and the cities of Phoenix and Tempe. The ultimate goals of this collaboration are audacious: returning the state Housing Trust Fund to pre-Great Recession levels, establishing a state-level Low Income Housing Tax Credit is established and more. In FY20, the important step of connecting municipal, healthcare, business, and health insurance leaders to collaborate and advocate was achieved.
• Supporting systems-level efforts to make local, nutritious foods more accessible and affordable. The City of Phoenix created its first-ever Food Action Plan. The Maricopa County Food Coalition released multiple analyses and recommendations. The Arizona Food Systems Network functioned as “a coalition of coalitions” building out strategies and advocating for change. In a key shift, the Double-Up Food Bucks received $500,000 to provide healthy foods to SNAP participants as part of a COVID relief package.
• Continuing collaboration and support for the Live Well Arizona Incubator. Thanks to collaboration with The Arizona Partnership for Healthy Communities, five more community coalitions were developed in FY20. Two projects from Tucson (led by Kore Press Institute and the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association), one from Yarnell (the Weaver Mountains Health Initiative), a fourth from Kingman (led by the Mohave County Department of Public Health) and a fifth from Cottonwood (led by Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District) all achieved outstanding progress while adapting to the realities of COVID-19. Several Incubator alumni earned Vitalyst Spark and Systems Change grants. A year-long engagement with tribes statewide focused on developing a Tribal Elements of a Healthy Community Wheel that is scheduled to debut in FY21.
• Continuing collaboration with cities and towns to develop a Health In All Policies approach, particularly in areas related to equity. In FY20 we directly invested in supporting the City of Tempe’s pivotal Equity in Action efforts. For the City of Phoenix, Vitalyst invested in racial equity training for its top 200 leaders. Vitalyst also served as an appointed member to the City of Phoenix’s Urban Heat Island/Trees & Shade Subcommittee.