Here for Spartanburg
The Mary Black Foundation and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System announced the creation of Live Healthy Spartanburg in 2021, a new collaborative with the mission to achieve health equity and improve health outcomes for all Spartanburg County residents.
Live Healthy Spartanburg represents the merging of two existing, longstanding local health collaboratives — The Road To Better Health and Spartanburg’s Way to Wellville — into one unified initiative designed to address the Spartanburg community’s health and wellbeing needs.
Our History
The Road To Better Health was established in 2008 by a group of community leaders and organizations with the goal to identify priority areas and focus collaborative efforts to improve health outcomes in Spartanburg County. Then in 2015, Spartanburg was selected as one of five communities nationwide to be a part of the Way to Wellville, a 5-year project to achieve equitable well-being. The two initiatives partnered with others to conduct a local Community Health Needs Assessment in 2019.
Through dozens of surveys, feedback from focus groups and other interviews, a key takeaway emerged about community-wide confusion over the existence of two named collaborative efforts operating in roughly the same space. An extensive consultant-led process in 2020 followed, which led to a recommendation to fully align and unify the partnerships into one organization, and Live Healthy Spartanburg was created.
Live Healthy Spartanburg received initial multi-year, leadership-level funding commitments from the Mary Black Foundation and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System serves as the backbone organization for the program, which is housed as a division within the system's Community Health department. But the community-wide, all-hands-on-deck approach that buoyed the two previous community health efforts remains. The City of Spartanburg, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), the United Way of the Piedmont, USC Upstate, and other partners are ensuring continued collaboration to improve community health.
Our Team
JaLisa Jordan, MPH
Program Manager
Erica Rhodes, BA, CCHW
Selena Smith
Project Coordinator
Community Health Equity Coordinator
Community Advisory Board
F. Jared Charles
SC DHEC
Taylor Dement
OneSpartanburg, Inc
Polly Edwards-Padgett
Spartanburg Regional Foundation
Claudine Feig
University of South Carolina Upstate
Brandon Gaffney
Spartanburg Area Mental Health
Keisha Gray
SAM (Spartanburg Academic Movement)
Midas Hampton
Strategic Spartanburg
Rev. Dr. Shelia E. Hodge
Spartanburg Interfaith Alliance
Marlon Hunter
ReGenesis Health Care
Mitch Kennedy
City of Spartanburg
Laura Ringo
PAL (Play. Advocate. Live Well)
Kathy Rivers
Spartanburg County
Carey Rothschild, Board Chair
Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System
Paige Stephenson
United Way of the Piedmont
Dr. Alexis Stoner
Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM)
Rochelle Williams
Mary Black Foundation
Our Committees
ACCESS TO CARE
A lack of access to care is one of the most widespread and challenging barriers people face to health. A number of community organizations have been working for many years in Spartanburg to increase access to care. Live Healthy Spartanburg is bringing these organizations and the rest of the community together to support and expand on these efforts.
Co-Chair: Summer Tebalt
ReGenesis Health Care
Co-Chair: Staci Roberts
AccessHealth
RESILIENT CHILDREN & FAMILIES
Hundreds of mothers in Spartanburg County are unable to access quality prenatal and maternal care. More than one in 10 mothers receive late or no prenatal care, and 30 percent of mothers are unable to access a postpartum appointment within six weeks of giving birth. This has serious implications for both the health of the mother and the baby. While poor birth outcomes affect mothers and babies of all races and ethnicities, the problem is especially acute for Black and Hispanic mothers, making Birth Outcomes a significant issue for addressing overall health equity.
Co-Chair: Hope Garcia
Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System
Co-Chair: Haley Wicker
Mary Black Foundation
Co-Chair: Dr. Jennifer Parker
Spartanburg Academic Movement
CHRONIC HEALTH CONDITIONS
Where you live, work and play can also have an impact on health outcomes. Wholespire Spartanburg’s goals are to increase access to and the consumption of nutritious foods, increase policy, systems and environmental approaches that support health behaviors and by increasing access to and the utilization of services and resources to prevent, and improve treatment and control of chronic health conditions.
Co-Chair: Jasmine Gilliam
PAL Spartanburg
Co-Chair:
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & CAPACITY BUILDING
As we seek to improve health in Spartanburg, we recognize this work must be done with the community — not to the community. Live Healthy Spartanburg is committed to ensuring all voices are heard, especially those who are most affected by social barriers to health and racial disparities. At the same time, we will work to build the capacity of community organizations and programs to expand their efforts, reach and impact.
Co-Chair: Marilyn Nguyen
City of Spartanburg
Co-Chair: Katrina Means
Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute
COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PLAN (CHIP) & COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENT (CHNA)
Following up on the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and the Spartanburg Racial Equity Index, Live Healthy Spartanburg will work with its partners to develop a new Community Health Improvement Plan. The plan will provide a framework for moving forward to address the needs and disparities identified by the CHNA and the Racial Equity Index.
Co-Chair:
Co-Chair:
POLICY
Public policy has a significant impact on community health and health outcomes. While policymaking at the national and state levels is arduous, Live Healthy Spartanburg will seek to find opportunities to work with community partners to build consensus for targeted, effective policy on the local level that holds the greatest promise to address disparities and improve outcomes.
Co-Chair: Bryan Boroughs
Institute for Child Success
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Our Community Advisory Board Partners
