Dec 10, 2021 | HYPE Civic Action Projects, Impact, News
Whether you live in a rural community or the middle of a city, healthy foods can be hard to come by. That’s because South Carolina is filled with food deserts. Grocery stores in neighborhoods and towns close all of the time due to their bottom line — sales and money — and some communities may have never even had a grocery store at all. When people can’t rely on grocery stores for easy access to produce, a food desert is born. Fortunately, teens in the 7th District AME Church are changing the landscape of their food supply.
Through a partnership between Wholespire and the 7th District AME Church, youth involved in the Young Peoples Division (YPD) took advantage of opportunities to give their communities access to healthy foods through The HYPE Project®. After learning about policy, systems, and environmental change and how the food choices a person has affect their health, many youth teams began focusing their community-based projects on community gardens.
“Church gardens seemed to be popular projects, not only for the youth but also for the entire congregation,” said Trimease K. Carter, youth engagement manager at Wholespire. “I think they are popular because youth found out that gardens are a fun, learning experience. Plus, the congregations get excited about helping with the gardens, watching the produce grow, and getting to take some home.”
During the final round of funding for YPD programs in the 7th District AME Church, a few youth teams focused on building new church gardens, while other youth teams, who were previously funded, chose to maintain their gardens based on the success of their initial garden project.
According to Pastor Clearance Mitchell from Singleton AME Church in Georgetown, SC, “Our success was in our garden beds. Although this year we endured interesting weather changes that caused some damage to our garden beds, we were still able to reconstruct and be a blessing. Although our giving numbers were lower than last year, we still were able to give fresh produce to a few senior citizens.”
In Turbeville, SC, the youth team at Oak Grove AME Church was funded all three years. Their first project focused on policy changes, like removing salt shakers from church dining tables. Church leaders approved the policy and left the youth wondering what to do next. So, they focused on educating their congregation on alternatives to salt. To do this, they decided to build an herb garden to use in taste tests and church meals as a way to replace or reduce salt. Their efforts have seemed to pay off.
“Our church is located within the stroke belt of South Carolina. Persons tend to eat an abundance of fried and fatty foods,” said Dr. Ila McFadden, YPD director at Oak Grove AME Church. “Through The HYPE Project®, our youth have helped our congregation think differently, and they have given them the desire to improve their overall health through proper diet, nutrition, and the importance of water as a beverage.”
Just like Wholespire’s mini-grant opportunities, funds awarded to the youth teams were used to purchase supplies and support their initiatives. Youth teams worked on multiple projects at the same time and took on active roles with each project. From brainstorming and setting church policies to planning and implementing healthy eating, active living, and safety projects, the youth of the 7th District AME Church YPD program truly stepped up to the plate. They showed their leadership skills and influenced not only their peers but also adults. They demonstrated what youth engagement can be for community coalitions and other youth groups in South Carolina.
For more information about The HYPE Project®, email Youth Engagement Manager Trimease K. Carter at Trimease@wholespire.org.
Aug 26, 2021 | Press Releases
Wholespire is pleased to announce that ten Healthy Eating, Active Living mini-grants have been awarded to non-profit organizations, schools, faith-based organizations, community coalitions, and local government in South Carolina. This mini-grant was awarded through a competitive application process to fund sustainable projects that aim to reduce chronic disease and create more fair and equal opportunities to make healthy choices by improving access to healthy food or creating opportunities for physical activity.
The ten mini-grant recipients are:
Bridging the Gap Advocacy – The Home Plate Initiative, led by Bridging the Gap (BTG) in Laurens County, is a small home that is currently being transformed into a community education center for the HYPE team, youth, and families within the region. Funding will be used to create a demonstration kitchen for BTG program participants to utilize produce from its community garden to aid in cooking competence and food literacy. The kitchen will be open to the community after BTG hours. This project is being supported by Clemson YLI SNAP-Ed, Lakelands Regions YMCA, and Wholespire Laurens County.
Charleston Orphan House, Inc (Carolina Youth Development Center) – Growing Goodness is a community garden project that will be located on the Berkeley County Campus. Also supported by The Green Heart Project, funds will be used to build garden beds to engage group foster care youth in hands-on gardening activities that will promote physical and mental health.
City of Darlington – The City of Darlington Outdoor Fitness Project expands on and continues a larger plan created for the Frank & Mary Sue Wells Park by the City of Darlington Beautification Board. Funds will be used to purchase and install outdoor fitness equipment and bicycle racks in four parks. This project aims to continue to promote an active lifestyle by giving citizens more access to an active mode of travel, through the placement of bicycle racks, and several designated areas to freely perform fitness routines across the city.
Helping Others Progress through Education (H.O.P.E.) – Serving the Community with FoodShare York County is an effort by H.O.P.E. to strengthen the food system and reduce food insecurity in the southside of Rock Hill. Funds will be used to create community gardens that will help supply FoodShare York County, as well as increase the number of SNAP customers by promoting FoodShare in apartment complexes, training partner organizations on SNAP equipment, and training staff on the Healthy Bucks program.
Marion County Library System – The Storyscape project is an interactive outdoor literacy self-guided walking and biking trail activity featuring 20 hanging structures that display sequenced pages of a children’s book and placed throughout a high-traffic area within the community. Already established and well-received by the community, funding will be used to reinforce the structures at Marion Hike Bike Trail in the City of Marion.
Oakwood-Windsor Elementary – Open community use is an asset for community members in Aiken who use Oakwood-Windsor Elementary’s open fields for physical activity after school hours. Funds for the Hydrating and ASSISTing our OWES Community project will be used to purchase an outdoor water hydration/bottle filling station and two soccer goals for use by the community.
SC School for the Deaf and the Blind Foundation – The Freedom to Play project will improve the play experience for sensory multi-disabled students at Cedar Springs Academy in Spartanburg. Challenges like slipping, falling, and getting hurt for these students keep them from running freely. Funds for this project will be used to purchase adaptive play equipment and paint lines on a recently paved surface to create a walking track, half basketball court, and hopscotch, and Four-square game areas.
The S.O.S. Project, Inc. at Poplar Spring AME Church – Like many rural communities, the Ora community in Laurens County doesn’t have sidewalks, parks, or any safe areas that promote physical activity. By creating a safe space at Poplar Spring AME Church, community members can use the area to be physically active and improve their health. Through the Creating a Healthy Community project, funds will be used to transform a grass basketball court to concrete or asphalt, creating a kids’/family corner by adding playground equipment and benches, repairing and upgrading the baseball field, and adding safety features like lights and signage.
Generation 4 – An Open Play Space for Community Use is a collaborative project between Generation 4 and Wholespire Anderson County to encourage the use of a trail located at Welfare Baptist Church in Belton. Funds will be used to erect Passport to Health kiosks along the trail that will offer health information. This project will improve upon and assist in the development of a place where all community members have a safe, secure, accessible, equitable, and enjoyable place to walk and be physically active.
Wholespire Richland County – The Project Discovery Palmetto Trails aims to increase access to physical activity for families in Hopkins through the use of the local trailhead of the Wateree Passage of the Palmetto Trail. Funds for this project will be used to purchase signage for this section of the trail to help guide trail users and to help them feel more comfortable knowing where they are going. The Palmetto Trail is supporting this project and will partner on guided trail hikes, educational sessions, and materials.
Funding for these mini-grants was made possible by a grant received by Wholespire, formerly Eat Smart Move More South Carolina, and the South Carolina Office of Rural Health from the BlueCross® BlueShield® of South Carolina Foundation, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
Jul 9, 2021 | Press Releases
Wholespire, formally Eat Smart Move More South Carolina, has a brand new funding opportunity for communities interested in increasing access to healthy choices. In partnership with the South Carolina Office of Rural Health, the healthy eating active living (HEAL) mini-grant will also help increase community capacity to address health through technical assistance.
The HEAL mini-grants must be used to fund healthy eating and active living projects that support policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes. There will be one grant cycle per year with an application deadline of July 21. One mini-grant is available each year for up to $5000 per applicant.
Applicants may be a current 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization OR use a fiscal agent who is a current 501(c)(3), school, local government, or faith-based organization. All grant proposals must be related to healthy eating and/or active living and implement, promote, or support a PSE change.
In addition, strong grant proposals will include:
- A project idea that is ready to be implemented.
- A letter of support for the project from partnering organizations.
- Outline of how the project will address health equity in your community.
More information, including project examples, key date, frequently asked questions, sample application, and more resources can be found on our website at www.wholespire.org.
If you are interested in speaking with a staff person about your project idea, email Community Coordinator Lauren Everett at community@wholespire.org.
Read more about the Teaming Up for Health Outcomes partnership with SCORH.
This funding opportunity is made possible by a grant from the BlueCross® BlueShield® of South Carolina Foundation, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
Jul 9, 2021 | Data & Resources, Impact, News
Today, the park equity movement in the U.S. is at a turning point. Parks and other green spaces are crucial for the health and wellbeing of communities—a fact made even clearer during the pandemic. But not all communities have access to these vital resources. Correcting inequities demands advocates’ utmost attention, urgency, and action. A new approach to achieving park equity can unlock transformation and usher in an era in which African American, Latino, and low-income urban communities are fair, just, and green.
Across the U.S., a growing number of jurisdictions are adopting park and green space equity policies. These include public finance measures that have an equity focus, park agency organizational changes, documentation of green space needs and inequities, joint use policies for school yards, land use policies that facilitate access to green space, policies and ordinances requiring community engagement for park development, and anti-displacement provisions within green space equity initiatives. But in many low-income communities of color, longstanding green space inequities remain. A growing movement of park equity advocates—including community members exercising their own power—is working to change that.
In the new paper, Changing the Landscape: People, Parks, and Power, Prevention Institute and Alessandro Rigolon of the University of Utah propose an approach to park and green space equity that prioritizes investing in the capacity of people closest to the problem so that they can drive policy and systems changes that will achieve population-level impacts. Support for this paper was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Key takeaways of Changing the Landscape: People, Parks, and Power are below. Please join us for a free webinar on Wednesday, July 28 at 10:00am Pacific Time to learn about these points in more depth and hear an update on the planning of RWJF’s new national funding initiative on park and green space equity.
- Urban parks and green spaces protect public health by providing opportunities for physical activity, time in nature, social connection, and respite. Parks also filter air, remove pollution, cool temperatures, and filter stormwater.
- African Americans, Latinos, and people who live in low-income, urban neighborhoods have less access to parks and green spaces than people who live in more affluent or predominantly white communities.
- These inequities are the product of policies and practices like residential segregation, redlining, racially biased planning decisions, and exclusionary zoning, as well as problematic narratives and ways of working in the green space field that have often excluded or tokenized communities of color.
- The traditional approach to addressing these inequities has focused on developing new parks or green infrastructure projects or improving existing projects. While project development is crucial, a sole focus on individual projects fails to address the existing system that produces—and will continue to produce—green space inequities.
- To address the root causes of green space inequities, the parks and green space field should embrace upstream policy and systems change.
- Power drives policy and systems change. Building the skills, capacity, and power of residents who live in park-poor neighborhoods is key to achieving green space equity.
Park and green space inequities will persist until the systems, policies, power dynamics, and narratives that produced these inequities in the first place are redesigned to produce equitable outcomes. By embracing the approach described in Changing the Landscape: People, Parks, and Power, advocates and jurisdictions can solve pervasive, structural inequities and support healthy, vibrant communities.
Mar 19, 2021 | HYPE Civic Action Projects, News
For the third year in a row, Eat Smart Move More South Carolina (ESMMSC) is partnering with the 7th Episcopal District of the AME Church to teach teens about The Healthy Young People Empowerment (HYPE) Project and to help guide them through a project that focuses on healthy eating and/or active living in their churches or communities.
This year, eight churches were selected through a competitive application and review process to receive mini-grants and form church-based HYPE teams. Three of the teams are new grantees that will identify new projects, while five are returning teams that will build upon their existing grant work.
Last year, the shutdown that resulted from COVID-19 occurred less than two weeks after the HYPE teams were trained. As a result, they had to quickly pivot, figuring out how to connect virtually to discuss initial project plans and any changes needed based on safety guidelines for COVID-19. Then, they had to figure out how to implement their projects with closed churches and community facilities. On top of that, some teams even dealt with the direct impacts of COVID-19 within their congregations.
“This year is different,” says Trimease Carter, ESMMSC’s youth engagement manager. “We are more prepared to implement The HYPE Project during the pandemic and somewhat know what to expect. We’ve redesigned the curriculum and training for full virtual implementation.” The new round of HYPE teams will attend a virtual training in March to kick off the project. This opportunity is funded through a grant that ESMMSC received from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Division of Division of Injury and Substance Abuse Prevention. Through this partnership, HYPE teams will address healthy eating and active living while also incorporating safety and injury prevention components into their projects.
