Fund for Public Health in New York City

Through its Building Healthy Communities priority area, NYHealth has supported neighborhood-level approaches to improve access to healthy, affordable food and to activate spaces to encourage more physical activity.

Recognizing that sustainable resident engagement is vital to community health, NYHealth is supporting its Building Healthy Communities grantees to ensure that the residents of these neighborhoods have the leadership skills, resources, and other tools needed to advocate for community health. With this support, grantees can help remove barriers to resident participation and ensure the long-term sustainability of the overall work in these communities. In 2020, NYHealth awarded the Fund for Public Health in New York City (FPHNYC) a grant to help residents in East Harlem promote community health and respond to the inequitable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color.

Under this grant, FPHNYC built its internal capacity and that of partner organizations to help engage the East Harlem community in responding to and rebounding from COVID-19. FPHNYC provided local organizations with free virtual trainings for building community capacity and resiliency, as well as facilitated equitable management practices. It also developed and distributed a “Health in Action” toolkit, including best practices, lessons learned, and effective models in community grantmaking. Additionally, FPHNYC conducted a digital storytelling project to capture the community impact of COVID-19. It shared residents’ voices and experiences with elected officials, City agencies, and other organizations, as well as advocated for changes to underlying structural inequities in the community.