Leading into the end-of-year giving season, the team at Wholespire has been gearing up for GivingTuesday, the global day of generosity that takes place on November 30, 2021!
GivingTuesday was created with one goal in mind: a day that encourages people to do good. Over the past nine years, this idea has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.
This year, we are looking to those within our community to help us guide the next generation of changemakers. Through The Healthy Young People Empowerment (HYPE) Project®, Wholespire teaches today’s youth how to become voices of action and advocates for change to create long-lasting
improvements in their communities.
We’ve got a big year ahead of us and, when powered by the generosity of those in our friends and neighbors, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish! When you give to Wholespire’s The HYPE Project®, you are helping to fund the thinkers of the future. Donations to this program help sustain initiatives promoting healthier tomorrows through access to better eating, active living, and health equity.
Like the original purpose of GivingTuesday, this is your opportunity to come together to give, show kindness, and share what you have. And we need your help!
Follow our movements on Instagram and keep up with us as we lead into this year’s GivingTuesday celebration. Will you join us in our mission as we move into 2022? Donate today!
Every county has a parks and recreation department that’s responsible for community activity programs and maintaining and ensuring the safety of its parks. But, sometimes, the playground equipment in parks unintentionally gets overlooked and becomes unsafe for children and families.
Hampton County has only one park under its name, and it’s located next door to the parks and recreation gymnasium and offices in the small town of Varnville. Recreation Park has been there for decades and it probably once hosted tons of kids and families over the years. As kids’ play choices changed, so has the foot traffic at Recreation Park. In addition, the decline in local economies has made parks and playgrounds less of a priority for rural areas of the state like Hampton County.
“Some of the equipment is probably more than 30 years old,” said Tania Peeples, Hampton County Parks and Recreation director. “The teeter-totter is wood, so it’s old. The bouncers and merry-go-round, I played on those as a child. The swing set has chains, but no seats.”
New bouncers were installed with the help of the Let’sGo! 3.0 mini-grant.
The department has changed leadership a few times, but each person had visions of bringing the park back to life and making their community healthier. They applied for a Let’sGo! 3.0 mini-grant to bring in some new playground equipment, and Wholespire was happy to give them a boost.
“Our small towns are treasures and truly deserve some help, especially those located in the I-95 corridor,” said Meg Stanley, Wholespire executive director. “Providing children and families a safe place to play is a basic community amenity that helps everyone grow healthy.”
Mini-grant funding was used to:
Replace the tire swing.
Replace missing seats and broken chains on the swing set.
Add new equipment like a double seat bouncer, truck bouncer, pearl twirl, and teeter-totter bouncer.
Peeples said, “The community loves it. The kids love it. We do have quite
A new teeter-totter in Recreation Park
a few people who come out and play. We still have a lot of work to do out there but the new playground equipment really brightened it up.”
The new playground equipment has spurred excitement for Peeples. “I would like to remove the plastic ring around the swing set, clean it out, and plant sod. I would love to add some picnic shelters with tables in an empty area. Of course, I’d like to see a paved walking trail around the park, replace some benches, and add an accessible swing.”
Did we mention Recreation Park has a nature trail? Under Peeples’ leadership, a nature trail, which had become overgrown with bamboo and weeds, was discovered. Completely inaccessible to the community and mostly forgotten about, Peeples and other parks and recreation leaders set out to uncover the lost gem. Located behind Recreation Park, the nature trail winds through woods and wetlands — complete with a wooden bridge. Restoring the trail will add even more value to the only county park and the lives of its residents and visitors.
“I’m a lover of the outdoors, so hearing that they rediscovered a nature trail is exciting and hopeful for Hampton County,” said Stanley. “I hope this small bit of funding from us will inspire them to reach for the stars and apply for other funding opportunities to help complete their vision.”
Download the Benefits of Becoming a Wholespire Chapter
It’s no surprise that we changed our name and branding to Wholespire, but we’re tying up some loose ends. By December 31, we will have completely ended all uses of the name Eat Smart Move More South Carolina (ESMMSC). What does this mean for our chapters? It means an opportunity to use our new brand and take advantage of the new benefits of being a chapter.
This year has been full of changes for Wholespire. We’ve adopted a new strategic plan with an emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. New policies and procedures are in place. Staff intentionally revised the benefits of being a chapter and placed priority on chapter support.
“The purpose of becoming a chapter is to promote and advance the Wholespire mission and vision within the chapter’s community. This can be a huge effort because chapter members volunteer their time while juggling their full-time employment responsibilities,” said Meg Stanley, Wholespire executive director. “That’s why we want to provide more support and services to our chapters and make marketing and communications more manageable.”
When our ESMMSC chapters choose to become a Wholespire chapter and when we gain new chapters, most of the benefits of being a chapter are free.
Marketing and Communications
Chapters receive a professional digital file of the Wholespire logo that includes the chapter name, as well as social media profile graphics and a brand identity guide with tips on how to use the logo and social media. Chapters can choose to use a free website if they have a chapter member who is able to keep it updated. An email address @wholespire.org is available to chapters, as well as social media guidance and chapter management templates. In addition, when a chapter hosts or co-hosts events, Wholespire will promote the events on its social media channels.
PSE Change Implementation Guidance
One of the perks that have always been available to chapters is free guidance, or technical assistance, around chapter growth and initiatives. At Wholespire, we want to give our chapters the best possible chance to become the “go-to” community coalition authority on healthy eating, active living, chronic disease, and other health issues that can be prevented or managed by increasing access to healthy choices. We offer guidance on capacity building, partnership development, advocacy, youth engagement, and evaluation.
Funding Opportunities
Every organization needs funding to sustain its work, and that’s no different for Wholespire chapters. The benefits of being a chapter include gaining firsthand knowledge about funding opportunities from Wholespire and its partners. Also, when you apply for an external grant, you can choose to identify Wholespire as your fiscal agent at a reduced cost than non-chapters.
Training, Education, and Networking
Professional development and keeping chapters in the know are important benefits of being a chapter. We’re stepping up our communication and professional development offerings to give our chapters the advantage. As a Wholespire chapter, you receive the Whole Community newsletter to stay updated on what’s happening at Wholespire and around the state and nation. You get access to the annual Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities, regional trainings, leadership trainings, and webinars. In addition, you get to participate on periodic chapter leader calls to discuss key strategies, issues, and opportunities for chapters.
By becoming a Wholespire chapter, not only do you get the benefits of being a chapter, but you also get to take advantage of Wholespire’s increased marketing around its new brand. Studies show that when a person sees consistent messaging and images, they are more likely to remember it and take action, whether it be joining a chapter, becoming an advocate, contacting the chapter, or any other call to action. With our new website and stronger search engine optimization strategies, your chapter will show up higher in search results. On our website, we’ve placed emphasis on our chapters and made them easier to find. Also, we have big plans in store for promoting our chapters, their work, and their volunteers.
Now is the time to make that change to a Wholespire chapter! If you want to become a Wholespire chapter, you need to make that change before December 31 because ESMM will no longer be recognized. To make the change, email Kelsey Allen at kelsey@wholespire.org.
Setting health-related policies are, perhaps, one of the first steps in creating healthy environments, influencing behavior change, and addressing health equity on a systemic level. When health-related policy is incorporated into churches, the potential to change the health of a community is impactful. And, when teens lead the policy charge, encouraging church leaders to adopt health-related policies can be simple.
That’s what teens found out throughout a three-year partnership between Wholespire and the 7th District AME Church’s Young Peoples Division (YPD). Through The HYPE Project®, youth teams were able to get more than 60 health-related policies passed at their churches. Examples of policy changes made by teens and their church leaders include:
Teens at Pine Grove AME Church in Columbia meet to plan their policy proposals.
Offering water, fruit, and vegetables when meals are served,
Including physical activity breaks during services and meetings, and
Removing saltshakers from tables in church dining halls.
Teens played many important roles in the development and passage of these health-related policies. They helped decide what policies were most appropriate for their churches, wrote the policies, and presented them to church leaders for approval.
Sometimes, policy change requires changing a policy that already exists rather than creating a new one. At Mother Emanual AME Church in Charleston, teens worked with their culinary committee to update their kitchen policy. This updated policy was changed to include healthy food choices on their menu.
The HYPE Project® teaches teens that promoting policies is key to getting everyone in on the healthy eating and active living movement. Teens developed activities to promote health-related policies like creating a walking program, producing physical activity videos, and hosting kick-off events.
At Pine Grove AME Church in Columbia, teens hosted the Reshape your Diet and Witness the Fitness community event at the Pine Grove Community Recreation Center to promote their church policies and to encourage the community to adopt a healthy lifestyle. They offered a healthy snack taste test, games, fruits of the spirit canvas painting, line dancing, healthy recipes, and door prizes.
“The youth participation at this event made me proud. Because of this event, the church is starting a community faith walk beginning the first Saturday in the month at Harbison Park,” said Miranda Blocker, YPD director at Pine Grove AME Church.
Teens led events like church walking groups to promote their policies and to encourage members to become more physically active.
At Bethany AME Church in Union, teens successfully encouraged their church leadership to create health-related policies for their kitchen. In addition to serving fruits and vegetables at church-hosted events and removing the salt shakers from tables, they decided to stop serving fried foods altogether. After promoting the policies, they’ve seen individual behavior change.
“We noticed that a lot of our church members have started to exercise more (such as joining gyms, walking) and eat healthier,” said Rena Goode. “We also noticed that our kitchen committee has increased healthy food choices for meal service.”
Through youth engagement and The HYPE Project®, the 7th District AME Church’s teens are taking on larger leadership roles and becoming community changemakers. Visit The HYPE Project® page to learn how teens can make change happen in your community.
The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of addressing chronic health conditions and health disparities that are affecting congregations and communities. As churches consider how to address members’ physical and mental health concerns, theUniversity of South Carolina Prevention Research Center is making a timely resource available to assist with planning and putting healthy practices in place to create a healthy church environment. The Faith, Activity, and Nutrition (FAN) online training helps churches create healthier environments that support physical activity and healthy eating for members and the communities they serve.
As the New Year approaches and members look for ways to reconnect, FAN also provides a free, fun, and effective way to help congregants recommit to their health goals as a body. Many FAN activities can be put into place virtually!
Enrollment is open now for January 2022. Churches can visit our website for more information, to sign up for an information session, or to complete an interest form: http://prevention.sph.sc.edu/projects/fantraining.htm. We hope that churches will choose to make 2022 their year for health and create a healthy church environment!
In recognition of Diabetes Awareness Month, the Diabetes Action Council of South Carolina (DAC) is premiering a live screening of In It Together SC: Preventing Diabetes in SC. The docuseries will be on November 17, 2021, from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm EST on the DAC In It Together Facebook and YouTube pages.
The 4-part docuseries illustrates the impact of diabetes among South Carolina’s most vulnerable population groups and diabetes prevention efforts being made to prevent, delay, and manage type 2 diabetes in the state. Additionally, DAC will announce its strategies for combating diabetes outlined in the 2021-2026 Statewide Comprehensive Diabetes Prevention Plan for South Carolina.
According to InItTogetherSC.org, the DAC is composed of stakeholders from across the state that are committed to education, management, and prevention of type 2 diabetes. The DAC develops and implements the Statewide Comprehensive Diabetes Prevention Plan for South Carolina. It focuses on provider engagement, promotion of the In It Together Diabetes Prevention Program through increased program availability, participation, and long-term program sustainability.
Wholespire, formerly Eat Smart Move More South Carolina, provides administrative support to the DAC and assists with the implementation of the diabetes state plan. Wholespire also partners to raise awareness of prediabetes and the availability of resources within local communities through a network of Wholespire chapters and healthy eating active living community coalitions.
Working with the faith-based community to increase access to healthy choices and opportunities is a strategy that Wholespire staff knows well. Churches and other faith-based settings provide opportunities to implement policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change that can have a positive impact on population health.
Over the past three years, Wholespire partnered with the 7th District African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and its Young People’s Division (YPD) to implement The HYPE Project. Through a competitive application process, all churches in the 7th District with an active YPD were invited to apply for a mini-grant to implement healthy eating and/or active living strategies. Funded by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC), The HYPE YPD Project also required that participating YPDs implement injury prevention strategies.
Over the life of the SC DHEC funding, Wholespire and the 7th District AME Church supported 306 youth contacts from 22 AME churches in 11 counties. Youth in the Young People Division (YPDers) positively impacted the lives of their congregations by completing projects such as:
Community/Church Gardens,
Church Health Bulletins,
Safety Signage,
Handrails,
Community/Church Walking Clubs,
Walking Trails, and
Creating/improving Outdoor Recreation Spaces.
Youth advocates at Bethany AME Church in Jonesville, SC build a garden.
The Bethany AME Church garden looking healthy and full of produce.
The Thomas Chapel AM Church HYPE Team in Union, SC, hosts community walks/runs on Saturdays.
The YPDers also collectively passed over 60 healthy eating and active living policies at their churches. Policies focused on offering water, fruit, and vegetables when meals are served, including physical activity in services and meetings, and removing saltshakers from tables in church dining halls.
“This impressive accomplishment is an indication that church leadership, who must approve policies, are supportive of healthy change and that they are invested in the health of their congregants,” said Trimease K. Carter, manager of youth engagement at Wholespire. “Sixty policies across 11 churches is huge, and it was youth-led.”
Wholespire encourages HYPE teams to connect with local partners for additional resources and assistance that can leverage funding. Many YPD teams partnered with local organizations for technical support. Organizations such as the South Carolina Department of Education’s Farm to Table, SC DHEC, and SNAP-Ed provided helpful advice, tips, printed material, and strategies for implementing projects.
“Oftentimes, we are making decisions that affect our youth. It seems obvious to get youth leaders connected with our partners and let them help lead the direction of community health improvement efforts,” said Carter. “We feel like connecting youth with our chapters and partners is a win-win for everyone.”
YPD teams haven’t been without their challenges. COVID-19 posed great challenges for YPDers because of church closings, canceled group meetings, and other restrictions. They had to identify projects that could be safely implemented. Through their projects, youth were also able to support efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. Most were able to provide personal protective equipment (e.g., masks, hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray, and wipes) and share prevention tips with their congregations.
The Brown Chapel AME Church HYPE Team in Columbia, SC, revitalized a neighborhood basketball court.
A young man at Brown Chapel AME Church paints the basketball court.
St. Paul AME Church (Shaw) in Sumter, SC, completed a church garden.
The Final Round
The Jeter AME Church HYPE Team in Carlisle, SC, plants a garden.
The final round of funding ended in September 2021 with eight YPD teams being selected. Five of these were returning teams and three were new teams. The returning YPDers focused on expanding, maintaining, and promoting their existing projects. For example, one church hosted a Reshape your Diet and Witness the Fitness event to promote policy, systems, and environmental changes that were established in the previous years of their project.
The newly selected teams were able to identify, plan, and implement projects through this opportunity. According to one HYPE Project Advisor, “The financial support removed a large barrier in making the vision a reality.”
Wholespire was honored to work with historical Mother Emanual AME Church in Charleston, a newly selected team. Mother Emanual AME Church experienced tragedy in 2015 when a self-acclaimed white supremacist took the lives of nine members attending Bible study. The YPDers posted signs about general kitchen safety, passing healthy eating and active living policies, stress management, and body positivity. Their YPDers also hosted monthly group walks near the church.
The safety and injury prevention component during the final round of funding was addressed in many different forms. One team focused on practicing safety before, during, and after physical activity by warming up, cooling down, staying hydrated, and recognizing the signs of heat exhaustion. Other teams promoted safety through the use of safe recreational signage, kitchen safety signage, no firearms guns/weapons signage, and lighting in outdoor recreational spaces. Additionally, one HYPE YPD Team worked on clearing a sidewalk for the community to use. Residents expressed gratitude for clearing the sidewalk, with one stating that she can now “walk without fear of being hit by a car on the road.”
As with other Wholespire mini-grant opportunities, YPDers were encouraged to leverage funds. One church applied for a Healthy Eating, Active Living mini-grant from Wholespire and received $4,900.00 to expand their project. Their initial project included the creation of a walking trail. With these new funds, they will be able to repair and upgrade their basketball and baseball areas and add playground equipment. Wholespire plans on connecting this group to the SC DHEC Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, & Obesity Prevention for consultation on an open community use policy.
Youth Engagement Benefits
When we think of youth engagement, we think of youth engaging in advocacy campaigns or with community coalitions. The HYPE Project teaches youth to engage in healthy eating and active living projects. Church leaders have shared many benefits from participating in the HYPE YPD Project. They report that youth have become more engaged within the church and church activities. An adult advisor said, “Some of our youth were not very active within the church and this gave them the opportunity to step outside of their box.”
YPDers are also engaging with older adults within their congregation by getting them to help with activities like gardening, clearing fields, and packing mulch. One adult advisor said, “We had adults and senior citizens help out and it gave them something to do!”
This opportunity has also helped youth to be more conscious about physical activity and what they are eating and drinking. They are also sharing and stressing the importance of these things with their families, congregations, and communities. YPDers have hosted ribbon-cutting, field day, and kickoff events, as well as health fairs. One team’s project even led to their church starting a community faith walk.
Working with the 7th District AME Church and YPDers to address healthy eating, active living, and safety across communities in South Carolina has been an impactful partnership. Not only have the youth and church leaders learned about PSE change and its effectiveness, but Wholespire staff learned about the structure of the AME church and the appropriate channels to make change happen.
In February 2019, the University of South Carolina Lancaster (USCL) applied for a Let’s Go! 3.0 mini-grant to increase access to its outdoor recreation amenities by adopting an open community use policy and to continue its active community environments work with Wholespire Lancaster County, formerly Eat Smart Move More Lancaster County.
The partners had completed several community health improvement projects that increased access to healthy opportunities. The mini-grant would help complete their vision while focusing on the Clinton community, a Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) in the City of Lancaster. QOZs are characterized as economically distressed communities defined by the census tract.
Existing projects that needed to be completed were:
Improvement of the built environment in the Clinton neighborhood by extending bike lanes and crosswalks and offering a loop to the Lindsay Pettus Greenway, which improved access to the USCL campus.
USCL public health students conducted an assessment on student on-campus walking behaviors. They used the data to develop walking routes for anyone to utilize while on campus.
USCL’s recreation facilities were open to the public (including trails, walking routes, tennis courts, picnic pavilion, 5K starting point, bike lanes, and crosswalks). However, the promotion of these facilities has been limited to word-of-mouth.
The Gregory YMCA began managing the operations of the University-owned recreation facility. USCL secured funding for the YMCA to provide sliding scale financial assistance to income-eligible YMCA members on a long-term, sustained basis. Approximately 400 Lancaster residents utilize this benefit from the YMCA, many of whom live in the nearby Clinton community.
Let’s Go 3.0 mini-grant funds were used to:
Hire a professional designer to create a campus map of outdoor recreational facilities open to the public, which included the student-design walking routes.
Purchase and install way-finding signs that promote the open use amenities and walking routes.
Promote the open community use agreement policy to the community. Promotional strategies included issuing a press release to The Lancaster News, posting the press release on USCL’s website and social media, and announcing the existence and availability of these community resources at USCL’s student orientation and Clinton Elementary School’s Parent Night.
Purchase bike racks for the Lindsay Pettus Greenway trailhead in the Clinton community and the USCL campus.
Initial Challenges
For USCL, the challenge wasn’t creating new opportunities for physical activities, it was promoting the ones they already had. The USCL campus has seven buildings, a YMCA in the physical education building, tennis courts, and about a mile and a half of natural path trails.
“We’re very community-oriented, and there’s a lot of word-of-mouth advertising. This is how a lot of small towns, small communities go. We just assume that people know things, but we’re only reaching our own social circles,” explained Lauren Vincent Thomas, professor of health promotion education and behavior at USCL.
The first step was passing an open community use agreement. “When we learned about the Let’s Go 3.0 mini-grant to promote and pass an open community use agreement, I felt like we kind of already had it, we just hadn’t set it as a policy,” said Thomas. “In reality, people use the trail and the tennis court IF they know that they can, but it wasn’t widely known information.”
During the initial conversation with university leadership, they said people already knew about the trails. Convincing them that the project had value was most of the battle with the project. According to Thomas, “Wholespire had this great manual that answered all of my questions. I felt very equipped and confident when the Education Foundation asked about liability.”
A Snowball Affect
Before this project moved to the next steps, debris that was dumped in front of trails was cleared. “It just sent a message that we didn’t care about the campus,” Thomas said while explaining how things like debris deterred people from using the trails. “After that, it was just about updating some features and showing what the campus had to offer. The website was updated, billboards with maps were placed in prime positions, and trail markers and entrances were added.”
Once the project was started, more opportunities were uncovered. “We found money to put split rail fencing up to show off the trail and leveraged funding from another grant to put bike racks in, and we worked with the South Carolina Wildlife Federation to certify that we had a wildlife habitat,” said Thomas. “It reminded us of what we had and gave us the opportunity to share with other people.”
Thomas’ favorite part of the project has been connecting with people who are readily willing to offer their own gifts, talents, and resources.
“We just needed to give them the opportunity and generously thank them for what they offer. For example, we partnered with, an organization in our community that builds ADA ramps for seniors and people who have disabilities, to build a new bridge on one of the trails. They were willing to do this project for us for free as long as they got the credit. There is so much creative generosity in our community. Now, our partners feel like the trails are just as much theirs as it is USC Lancaster’s and that’s exactly what we want.”
New Conversations
The students on campus have been enjoying the positive changes the project brought. The picnic shelter has seen new light now that people know it’s there and university organizations have been enjoying the cleared trails. An outdoor club put in geocaches and monitors them to add new prizes and F3, a male CrossFit group, uses the trails for Saturday morning runs.
The project has also affected conversations about the university’s 10-year Master Plan. “This mini-grant project has primed us to have that bigger conversation about walkability in our community,” said Thomas. “There is a four-lane highway between USC Lancaster’s campus and downtown Lancaster that could benefit from a crosswalk or pedestrian bridge!”
Thomas is hoping this project is the start of making the community more bike- and pedestrian-friendly.
For the past three years, Wholespire Lancaster County, formerly Eat Smart Move More Lancaster County, has been under the co-leadership of Irini McCarthy and Candra Riley. During this time, the Wholespire chapter has made some major policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes. Now, the chapter is looking for a new co-chair as Irini McCarthy’s public health career leads her to new opportunities in North Carolina.
While working for the Upper Midlands Rural Health Network (UMRHN), McCarthy was responsible for expanding the UMRHN into Lancaster County and leading the Lancaster County Health and Wellness Commission. Through this work, she began attending Wholespire Lancaster County meetings and became a chapter member. When the chapter’s chair stepped down, McCarthy was approached by coalition members to take on the role of co-chair alongside Candra Riley.
“I loved Candra, and we’ve been working on stuff together. I knew this was going to be a great partnership. I decided that if Candra is doing it, I’ll do it along with her,” said McCarthy.
Irini was good at getting the emails out and I was good at taking minutes and coming up with the agenda,” said Candra Riley, co-chair of Wholespire Lancaster County. “If I could have a co-chair like that for all my coalitions and committees…she made it so easy.”
McCarthy felt it was awesome to work with the group in Lancaster that was so diverse. Chapter members had different perspectives, but common goals of wanting the community to thrive by focusing on equitable change, food security, access to care, and PSE changes.
According to Riley, McCarthy had a huge impact on healthy eating and active living in Lancaster County, and she had a vision of some things that she wanted to do like bringing FoodShare to Lancaster County. She was very instrumental in the initial engagement of partners on the FoodShare Lancaster County project, which is still doing well today. She also helped by bringing in different local speakers and creating the newsletter for the chapter.
One of McCarthy’s most memorable moments with Wholespire Lancaster County was completing the walkability assessment in the Town of Heath Springs. She was impressed with all of the partners that attended including Lancaster County Council, Town Councils, and residents. Implementing the Faith, Activity, and Nutrition Program was also a high note for her, especially working with the churches, Town of Heath Springs Community Relations Volunteer Dr. Zora Denson, and Professor and Director of the University of South Carolina Prevention Research Center Dr. Sara Wilcox. She pointed out that these two projects are examples of systemic change and small steps to implementing a culture of health.
When asked if her work in Lancaster prepared her for her new role in North Carolina, she replied, “Oh yeah, oh my gosh!” While at UMRHN, she helped Lancaster become the first county in South Carolina to become 100% tobacco-free. According to McCarthy, her career experiences and community and chapter work is knowledge that she can take with her and apply in her new role as Tobacco Prevention Coordinator for Mecklenburg County.
“All of the work that we did in…those are all big PSE level changes and that’s what this new role for me is,” said McCarthy. “I always knew that I wanted to do PSE level work because it impacts the greatest amount of people. And it has to be equitable. For me, that’s exciting. I love that kind of work. That’s what we did in Lancaster, and that’s what I’m doing now.”
During her time as co-chair of Wholespire Lancaster County, McCarthy also showed a great deal of leadership around health and racial equity. The outstanding notes she took during the 2020 Promoting Equity Among Communities Effectively (P.E.A.C.E.) training were shared with other coalitions and she modified a race equity assessment to be more applicable for coalitions.
When asked how she became interested in equity she explained, “It started working in rural communities. We don’t have a lot of monetary funds but have an asset-based approach of using our different partners and using the resources we do have to try and make things equitable, and you can do a lot with a little.”
McCarthy is very passionate about racial equity and disparities. She said, “There are so many people who just don’t get it or who don’t understand it and as many times as you’re talking it’s almost like you’re hitting a wall, but you don’t give up. You keep talking. You keep educating. And you hope that you plant a seed, and you advocate for the right thing to happen That’s where my passion is – equitable PSE change. That’s kind of where I want to be.”
Community health improvement requires community leadership like that of McCarthy, her co-chair Riley, and the members and partners of Wholespire Lancaster County to truly make change happen. During her short time as co-chair of Wholespire Lancaster County, Irini McCarthy has had a lasting positive impact on the people of Lancaster County, and she will be truly missed by those not just in Lancaster County but in other counties too.
