St. LOUIS (September 14, 2016) The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces the 24:1 Community is one of seven winners of the 2016 RWJF Culture of Health Prize. The Prize honors communities for their efforts to ensure all residents have the opportunity to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. The 24:1 Community is a coalition of the 24 municipalities that make up the Normandy School Collaborative in north St. Louis County. The non-profit Beyond Housing, a comprehensive community development organization working within the 24:1, will accept the $25,000 Prize.
The 24:1 Community is winning this national recognition for bringing partners together to rally around a shared vision of health, drawing especially on the wisdom, voice, and experience of residents themselves. Chosen from nearly 200 applicant communities across the country, the 24:1 Community caught the attention of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for coming together with a collective vision of stronger communities, engaged families, and successful children. The municipalities told the Foundation of their work toward goals such as restoring accreditation in the community’s school district, attaining the highest standards of policing, and attaining health equity in ways that go far beyond health care.24:1 Community photos may be accessed via Flickr, credit Chris Cross, Beyond Housing.
“The RWJF Culture of Health Prize communities show us that in towns and regions across the nation, individuals are coming together to find powerful ways to help people achieve the best health possible. These communities are connecting the dots between health and education, jobs, housing, and community safety,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, RWJF president and CEO. “We’re privileged to learn from this growing network of communities that offer hope for the well-being of the entire nation.”
“We are honored that our community’s efforts have been recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,” said Chris Krehmeyer, president and CEO, for Beyond Housing. “The 24:1 Community came together to help solve the serious challenges facing the residents of the 24 municipalities within the geographic boundaries of the Normandy School Collaborative. It takes time. It’s a heavy lift. But it is our hope that this system-wide mobilization will bring about something that is all too rare today: lasting success. This prize shows we are going in the right direction.”
The 24:1 Community will join a network of Prize-winning communities and have their inspiring accomplishments shared throughout the nation. The other six winning communities are: Columbia Gorge Region of Oregon and Washington; Louisville, Kentucky; Manchester, New Hampshire; Miami-Dade County, Florida; Santa Monica, California; and the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe in Washington.
“The work we have been able to accomplish in the Normandy School District has been transformative,” said Mayor Mary Louise Carter, City of Pagedale, Missouri. “I’m thrilled that 24 municipalities could come together to play a critical role in the success of our area by ensuring that our communities and businesses can continue to grow and succeed through our initiatives and programs.”
To become an RWJF Culture of Health Prize winner, the 24:1 Community had to demonstrate how it excelled in the following six criteria:
- Defining health in the broadest possible terms.
- Committing to sustainable systems changes and policy-oriented long-term solutions.
- Cultivating a shared and deeply-held belief in the importance of equal opportunity for health.
- Harnessing the collective power of leaders, partners, and community members.
- Securing and making the most of available resources.
- Measuring and sharing progress and results.
Representatives from the 24:1 Community will join this year’s other prize-winning communities at the Culture of Health Prize Celebration and Learning Event taking place at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, on October 19-20.
Learn more about the 24:1 Community’s work, as well as this year’s other Prize winners through a collection videos, photos, and more at www.rwjf.org/Prize.
About Beyond Housing
Beyond Housing is a nationally-recognized community development organization working in a defined geographic area – the 24 municipalities that make up the Normandy Schools Collaborative in North St. Louis County. Beyond Housing helps communities by focusing on all the areas that make up a thriving community – housing, education, health, jobs and economic development. For more information on Beyond Housing, visit www.BeyondHousing.org.
About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working with others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.
About the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute advances health and well-being for all by developing and evaluating interventions and promoting evidence-based approaches to policy and practice at the local, state, and national levels. The Institute works across the full spectrum of factors that contribute to health. A focal point for health and health care dialogue within the University of Wisconsin-Madison and beyond, and a convener of stakeholders, the Institute promotes an exchange of expertise between those in academia and those in the policy and practice arena. The Institute leads the work on the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps and the RWJF Culture of Health Prize. For more information, visit http://uwphi.pophealth.wisc.edu
