Rosman Town Hall's Closing the Gap with Social Determinants of Health Accelerator Plans - Project Title: Rosman, North Carolina CDC Closing the Gap with Social Determinants of Health Accelerator Plans (CDC-RFA-DP-23-0077) Project Director Name: Charlotte Shackleford Contact Phone Number: 828-554-7010 Contact Email Address: charlotte@yoursparkpoint.org Funding Request: $125,000 The Town of Rosman is a small rural community in the mountains of Western North Carolina focused on providing opportunities to our citizens that support their overall well-being and quality of life. Rosman seeks to collaborate with SparkPoint to implement this project in the community and among more isolated regions of Transylvania County. SparkPoint aims to improve personal and community well-being by fostering connectedness. SparkPoint works with individuals, schools, worksites, and organizations to align, lift, and create opportunities to improve health and happiness. SparkPoint is building on the foundation initiated by the Brevard Blue Zones Certification, recognizing Brevard as the 50th Blue Zones Community in America. Blue Zone Projects helps communities implement the longevity and happiness lessons learned from the world’s extraordinary people and cultures to measurably improve well-being and create enhanced community vitality. The method of work is to drive community-led semi-permanent and permanent change in man-made surroundings. The effect: people moving more naturally, taking more time to downshift daily, discovering the power of purpose, eating wisely, and deepening their connections and quality of relationships with friends, family and nature. Over time, these collective choices compound to sustainably improve well-being. SparkPoint has designed the program to address the pressing need for Social Connectedness and Food & Nutrition Security and we aim to focus on the following project objectives: Food and Nutrition Security: - The Town of Rosman will collaborate with community coalitions to increase durable access to quality fruits and vegetables, connecting with at least two organizations who can provide access to healthy foods for community members. - The Town of Rosman will increase the acceptance of food assistance and nutrition in the community, working with community organizations to provide nutritional education programs. - The Town of Rosman and SparkPoint will collaborate to enhance nutrition guidelines, healthy food service guidelines and overall access to healthy foods through collaborations at local worksites, schools and community events, connecting at least 300 persons with healthy food options that otherwise did not have these choices. Social Connectedness: - The Town of Rosman will collaborate with numerous key partners to identify community led social activities and support services that will encourage personnel interaction and collaboration among our community, bridging the gap between healthy eating, mental health and wellbeing (to include, but not limited to, local schools, food coalitions, round table organization partners, etc.) - The Town of Rosman will collaborate with SparkPoint to specifically promote the participation of community members in volunteer programs, connecting community members with fulfilling community activities that support safe and healthy social activity, identifying at least one event each quarter that community members can participate in. The Town of Rosman and SparkPoint will collaborate to conduct community health assessment and long-range strategic planning across the Transylvania County to identify programmatic changes that can improve social determinants of health among the community that has poor health outcomes, impacting healthy eating and nutrition that encompasses social connectedness, growing quality connections through the love and passion of healthy eating, cooking and nutrition. Programming will include a county-wide expansion of Accelerator programming, connecting hundreds of residents with resources.
