That town is Davidson, and while the stream of innovation seekers isn’t flowing yet, Town Commissioner Margo Williams can see the day when it happens. Her vision, one she described in detail to her town board colleagues seven months ago, has begun to turn tangible with the announcement that Davidson has been chosen for a $350,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control to help fund the town’s healthy community initiatives over the next three years.
Davidson was one of six organizations nationwide this month to be awarded a 2011 “Health Impact Assessment to Foster Community Design” grant, which will allow the town to complete at least three health impact assessments over a three-year period.
Should Williams’ vision ultimately become her legacy, the results gleaned from those assessments likely will be the lynch pin.
At a town board retreat in Winston-Salem in February, Williams signaled her hope that a grant from an organization that promotes public health would serve as the catalyst for a community health institute to which leaders from across the country would travel for multi-day stays to learn how Davidson’s planning ordinance ensures that “walkability” and open space are themes in all new development. Then the visitors would spend time out in the town, seeing the results of that work first hand.
But has Davidson truly become a model of public health? In the short term, Williams said in February, she sees success as a combination of options and participation. The more opportunities Davidsonians have to be healthy, and the more they take advantage of those offerings, the better the town will be, she explained.
Those criteria, however, are process oriented. They are means to an end. Quantifying that end can be complicated, but doing so has become the standard for quality health care. Organizations such as the American Hospital Association, and the Agency for Health care Research and Quality, for example, have tied quality to actual patient outcomes.
Davidson, Williams says, “has established the physical means for people to become healthier.” The CDC grant likely will help determine whether those “physical means” have resulted in better physical health. Williams, though, has little doubt what the results will show.
Because of a conscious effort by the town to create an extensive network of trails, greenways, sidewalks and open space, citizens are using those resources not only for exercise, but for traveling from point to point, she says. The town’s farmers’ market is a source of fresh fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods. And the Ada Jenkins Center offers health-related assistance to those without access to resources most take for granted.
But beyond assembling what the town already has done into a single, public health package, new initiatives could encourage citizens to use those resources, Williams says.
“It’s not such a stretch to close your eyes and imagine this,” Williams says of a potential Davidson community health institute.
The health impact assessments (HIA) funded by the grant are similar to environmental impact statements. HIA data offers measurable results that guide the development of policies and programs to promote a healthier environment, decrease health disparities and increase physical activity.
Responsibility for the grant-funded work will fall under Davidson Planning Manager Lauren Blackburn, an assignment that signals the town’s commitment to integrating public health in its long-term decision making.
Davidson’s newly hired healthy living and wellness supervisor, Leslie Willis, will continue to function as part of the town’s parks and recreation department, and will not be directly involved in the CDC-funded work, dubbed “Davidson: Design for Life” (DD4L).
“Leslie is a member of the DD4L committee,” says Davidson spokeswoman Megan Pillow Davis, also a member of the committee. “She will, like all other committee members, contribute to the overall vision for the DD4L program, but her primary responsibility will be to her full-time position. She will develop and coordinate new parks and recreation programs, and healthy living and wellness initiatives like the walk-to-school program.”
The CDC grant will fund a full-time coordinator to run the DD4L program, and the town is accepting applications for the position, Davis adds. And while a few Davidsonians quickly assumed that the coordinator would be Williams (who is not running for re-election in November), she says she has no interest in the post.
