Mark your calendars for April 2-4, 2019 for the 10th Annual Appalachia Funders Network Gathering in beautiful Athens, Ohio. Registration is open.

Click here to claim your spot today! 

Project: Development and Implementation of AFN Strategic Communications Plan

Organization: Appalachia Funders Network | appalachiafunders.org

Contact: Kathryn Coulter, Network Coordinator | Kathryn@ruralsupportpartners.com | 828-273-3839

RFP Submission Deadline: Feb. 11, 2019

Members of the Health Working Group hosted an Oral Health Summit in September 2018 in Charleston, WV. Over 60 people attended the event, including funders, state health departments, oral health coalitions, universities, health nonprofits, and others. The oral health summit was designed to bring together key stakeholders in the sector throughout the region to identify the unique challenges facing Central Appalachia. The group has developed an infographic highlighting the key takeaways from the summit.

For more details, click here for a job description (PDF).

The joint Food & Ag Systems Working Group between the Appalachia Funders Network and the Central Appalachian Network (CAN) worked together to conduct and publish six case studies of projects at the intersection of food access and health. Several members of the Network funded the work to document and highlight lessons from innovative projects around the region, and CAN conducted and compiled the case studies. Look out for a video highlighting these projects in the coming months! For now, take a look at the great work happening.

The Oral Health Summit took place on September 5th in Charleston, WV, as part of the great work being done by the Health Working Group's Oral Health committee. Over 60 people attended the event, including funders, state health departments, oral health coalitions, universities, health nonprofits, and others. The oral health summit was designed to bring together key stakeholders in the sector throughout the region to identify the unique challenges facing Central Appalachia. The 2 main challenges to oral health facing Appalachia that were identified from the summit were access to care and the need for more providers. 

Project: Seven Connected Animated Short Explainer Videos

Organization: Appalachia Funders Network (AFN) | appalachiafunders.org

Contact: Lindsey Wilson, Network Coordinator | Lindsey@ruralsupportpartners.com | 828.280.3333

RFP Submission Deadline: Aug. 22, 2019

The 9th Annual Gathering featured an exciting array of learning journeys, panels, and open spaces over three action-packed days. Over 100 participants came together in Pikeville, KY for building relationships and trust, facilitating common understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing Central Appalachia, and fostering cross-sector collaboration to accelerate the Appalachian Transition. Scroll down to read more about the Gathering and find helpful links to photos, partner contacts, and speaker slides.

Organizations that sponsor the Annual Gathering at the Gold or Platinum levels receive a featured spotlight here, with a snippet appearing in a Quarterly Connections. This quarter, we shine a spotlight on Amy Swanson, Vice President of Marketing, Advocacy and Member Experience at UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio.

Describe your current work addressing health and wellness needs of Appalachian areas.

In addition to serving people throughout the Appalachian region through Medicare and employer-sponsored health plans, UnitedHealthcare currently serves people eligible for Medicaid in Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia.

Like members of Appalachia Funders Network, we know socioeconomic and health challenges are often connected. This is why at UnitedHealthcare, we take a whole-person approach to health care – which means we seek to address physical health, behavioral health and social needs, such as access to healthy food, housing and transportation. And, of course, we don’t do this alone. We work with the people we serve, family members and care givers, care providers and community partners to address local health care needs with local solutions.

For example, in Ohio and other states, we are working with community partners to help connect people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to available housing resources. We’ve partnered with the Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Ohio (COHHIO) for the last three years and recently funded research to examine and address housing gaps for transitional youth. Stable, affordable housing helps people live healthier lives.