Population Health

The Health Care program area is building capacity at the state, regional, and local level to link government, health, and social service providers so that all Carolinians have the opportunity to lead a healthy lifestyle and address their social needs.

Challenge

Our nation suffers staggeringly high and increasing rates of obesity and chronic diseases, compounded by socioeconomic and other inequities that can drive health disparities. There is growing awareness that a person’s behavior and social determinants of health, conditions in their environment that affect well-being, have a more significant impact on overall health than clinical care.

Our Objective

We seek to connect health systems with community-based organizations to create healthier communities by increasing the adoption of evidence-informed interventions, policies, systems, and environmental changes. With this approach, coalitions are supported in collectively implementing community-based programs that create opportunities to change behaviors and address social needs.

What We Fund

We support healthcare providers in partnering with community-based organizations to improve health by addressing social needs such as food insecurity and social isolation, while also promoting health literacy. Recognizing the importance of healthy behaviors, we are interested in advancing programs that help individuals overcome barriers that prevent or limit the adoption of healthy lifestyles.

At both the state and local levels, we seek to ensure community voice and advance the alignment of community health needs assessments and improvement plans to address population health.

Health People Tableau Map link — Click here to view interactive data about the Healthy People Healthy Carolinas coalitions, their interventions and outcomes.

Our most significant population health investment is the Healthy People Healthy Carolinas initiative, launched in 2015. Based on a collective impact model, this initiative seeks to adopt evidence-informed interventions as well as policy, system and infrastructure changes at the local level. Through this mutual work, opportunities to engage in physical activity and healthy nutrition become more prevalent in places where people spend time, such as childcare, school, work, and recreation.

Healthy People, Healthy Carolinas Initiative

While we are not currently accepting additional applications from organizations to join the Healthy People Healthy Carolinas initiative, we do anticipate releasing a request for applications in the future. In the meantime, we continue to invest in communities, health systems, and public health agencies that advance programs and policies that promote healthy lifestyles. New funding requests may be submitted through the pre-application process while the pre-application cycle is open via our online application portal.

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Before You Proceed

The Duke Endowment’s grant application and reporting process is powered by Blackbaud. If your organization currently uses Blackbaud, please use your existing login credentials to access the grantee portal. If your organization does not have a current Blackbaud ID, please select “create account” when prompted to login. For a step-by-step process click here.

You can access all previous and in-progress applications through the grantee portal.

Grantee Application Portal

Resources

March 23, 2022

Using a Collective Impact Model in Communities to Improve the Physical Environment

The physical environment—the places where individuals live, work, and play—can cause or prevent serious health conditions including chronic diseases and obesity. In North Carolina, the Collective Impact Model serves as the foundation on which multisector community coalitions can address environmental and policy barriers for improved health.

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Story

Helping Communities Reduce Childhood Obesity

September 25, 2017 | Lin B. Hollowell III