“Granville County’s journey to promote health, well-being, and equity is one that illustrates the importance of dedicated leadership and collaboration for creating a shared value around health.”
—RAND Corporation
RWJF Culture of Health 5-Year Community Landscape Report: Granville County, North Carolina
Report Feb-01-2022 2-min read
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Report Publish Date: February 1, 2022
This report summarizes Granville County, N.C.’s health, wellbeing, and equity journey from 2016 to 2021, as part of RWJF’s Sentinel Communities Surveillance project.
Primary Takeaways
“Granville County’s capacity to promote health, wellbeing, and equity is led by its local health department and independent health system, but also involves municipal and county governments, educational institutions, nearby anchor institutions, and a small philanthropic and nonprofit sector,” the authors write. “As the community grows, capacity has increased through improvements in the built environment and additional efforts on the part of healthcare, educational, and regional planning institutions, though these efforts are not always tied directly to health.”
At time of writing, Granville had launched a health collaborative and was focusing on expanding trails and greenway, supporting youth development, and addressing the opioid crisis locally.
Overview and Objectives
Begun in 2016, RWJF’s Sentinel Communities Surveillance project tracks how a Culture of Health is developing in 29 communities across the country. The authors wanted to describe key challenges, opportunities, and insights in Granville County.
Hypothesis or Approach
For this report, the authors conducted 30 hourlong, semi-structured interviews between the middle of 2017 and fall 2021. Interviewees came from a number of different types of organizations and sectors.
How This Influences Change
“Progress [in Granville County] has happened slowly, but measurably, as cross-sector partners remain committed to working together and finding new ways to address both long-standing and emerging community needs,” the authors write. “Other communities can learn from Granville County’s approaches to building and sustaining coalitions, as well as the challenges they encountered, to inform their own journeys.”
Research: Go Deeper
Granville County is a rural county in North Carolina, but its proximity to the Research Triangle area—so-called because it is home to three universities—has led to recent population growth and access to amenities and resources not often observed in rural communities. The county’s high-capacity local health department and independent healthcare system provide leadership for health, including the establishment of a school health coalition that has grown to be the primary health collaborative in the county. Efforts to improve physical activity and nutrition in schools and improvements to greenways and recreational facilities have informed a widespread health narrative in the community that encourages individual health behaviors. Partnerships between public health, education, and social services providers have resulted in a variety of youth development and mentoring programs in the county. However, a broader definition of health—one that considers the roles of mental health, trauma, and upstream drivers of health—is still being developed locally. Health equity efforts in the county primarily relate to increasing access to healthcare and other resources, though some stakeholders are concertedly examining the role of systems and a select few are tackling racial equity issues. It remains to be seen whether recent infrastructure plans—including improving broadband access, increasing funding for water management systems, and integrated care services—will help to address some of the deep-seated challenges that the county faces.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, February 2022
Research Team
This study and report was conducted and created by:
- RAND Corporation
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