Sharing a Commitment to Health in Spartanburg

“One of the things that Spartanburg does really well is to work together, to be great partners,” says Laura Ringo, executive director of PAL Spartanburg. Her organization harnesses community collaboration to help prevent and reduce the devastating effects of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and respiratory illness.

The challenges of chronic disease in the Spartanburg area, and across the U.S., are daunting. Consider that:

• Nearly six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease.
• Two-thirds of all deaths in America each year are attributed to chronic disease.
• Chronic disease drives almost 90 percent of the $4.5 trillion expended for health care in the U.S. each year.
• Leading causes of death in the Spartanburg area are heart disease, cancer and respiratory illness.
• Obesity is a major contributor to Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers, and affects 20 percent of children and 42 percent of adults nationally. In Spartanburg County, the rate of adult obesity increased from 29.5 percent in 2012 to 36.4 percent in 2019.

Meeting these challenges medically often means turning to proven effective prescription medications, use of specialized medical equipment, or surgical interventions. Alongside these individual patient-centric approaches, PAL works with a coalition of organizations to focus on preventing chronic disease at the community level by changing behaviors through a focus on physical activity and healthy eating.

“Maybe 10 percent to 20 percent of our health care improvement comes from a doctor or a hospital or medicine. The rest, 80 to 90 percent of our health is determined by the community that you live in,” says Ringo.

Fundamental to PAL’s work is a strong belief that prevention of chronic disease is not just the work of one organization, but the shared endeavor of many partners in what Ringo describes as a ​“coalition of caring.”

PAL Coalition & Food System Coordinator Jasmine Gilliam is quick to identify a shared vision among PAL partners and stakeholders. ​“We are working towards a common goal, which is to serve people and to provide a healthier outcome for all our residents in years down the road, even if we’re not here,” she says.

In striving for that common goal, PAL works closely with non-profits, health care providers, government, businesses, local schools, social agencies, community advocates and local farmers. Partners including the Spartanburg Regional Health Care System, Risk Gleanings, the Bridge Hub City Farmer’s Market and the Mary Black Foundation collaborate to build walking trails and public spaces, offer free exercise programs, grow and distribute fresh produce to area markets and individuals and provide nutrition coaching in tandem with cooking classes.

Across these efforts, there is an emphasis on equity and reaching minority and economically challenged populations in which rates of chronic disease are disproportionately higher. Nationally, African Americans are 30 percent more likely to die from heart disease than non-Hispanic whites.

“A racial equity study in Spartanburg showed that in one neighborhood that was relatively affluent, the life expectancy was 16 years longer than another neighborhood that was about a mile and a half away,” says Ringo. ​“We prioritize our interventions, to help ensure that the communities that need the most investment to live their healthiest life are the ones that are getting that, and that the health outcomes for all of our residents are as strong and as positive as possible,” she explains.

Emphasis on prevention and a focus on equity are key to investments from The Duke Endowment to help improve the health of people and communities across North Carolina and South Carolina. PAL Spartanburg serves as the backbone organization for the area’s Healthy People, Healthy Carolinas (HPHC) coalition, one of 33 such regional coalitions across the Carolinas working to improve community health with support from The Duke Endowment. As this work is built on the Collective Impact Model, the Endowment also funds technical assistance. This includes opportunities for HPHC coalitions to learn from each other, quickly spread best practices, advance equity and develop policy agendas.

“The investment from, and the partnership with, The Duke Endowment has allowed us to move the work forward within the food system in a way that otherwise would have probably taken us 20 years,” says Ringo.

For local farmer and PAL partner Cecilia Miller, that means not only tending daily to an array of vegetables and herbs on her small organic farm, but also connecting with and educating younger generations on growing and harvesting fresh, nutritious food.

“Especially with kids, you watch them put a seed in the ground, and they come back, and it is sprouting up, and their eyes just really grow, you know? They say, it really grew!” says Miller.

She points to the strong community connections at the core of PAL Spartanburg’s work as her motivation for participating. ​“If we can come together — whether it be a community garden, or just going and taking a walk with someone — whatever we do as a community is going to help us all,” she says.

Learn more about PAL Spartanburg.