Wednesday, March 2, 2016

IDEAS xLab, based in Lousiville, KY, announced the receipt of a planning grant from the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts. The $45,000 grant will fund a collaboration between IDEAS xLab, YouthBuild Louisville, and The Special Project.

The grant provides funding and other support for a health impact assessment process to develop a Cultural Blueprint for Health–an evidence-based action plan for integrating artist innovation into community health in order to address disparities in health outcomes with the goal of increasing family and social support and community safety.

"Even though we are 50 feet across Broadway from the highest concentration of hospital, health and physician services in the state of Kentucky, it is a statistical fact that if you were born or live in Smoketown, Kentucky's oldest African American neighborhood, your life expectancy is almost 10 years shorter than a majority of Louisville," said Theo Edmonds, co-founder of IDEAS xLab. "The model we are developing uses artistic process, data and direct community engagement to define a common agenda and drive collective action to address these unacceptable health disparities.”

The Health Impact Project also announced grants to fund projects in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and West Virginia. At the end of the grant period in October 2016, the partners will embark on the process of implementing the strategies identified during the planning period.