Expanding a Hospital-Led Neighborhood Revitalization Effort
Nationwide Children’s Hospital first launched its neighborhood improvement initiative, Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Families (HNHF), in 2008, with a focus on housing. In the years since, HNHF has impacted over 400 homes in the zip codes near the hospital’s main campus, and it has worked to address other social drivers of health, such as jobs and educational opportunities.
The initiative’s success has led Nationwide Children’s to begin work in another historic Columbus neighborhood facing challenges, called Linden.
A recent article in The Columbus Dispatch highlights the home improvements already underway there – and why Nationwide Children’s, Columbus Health Commissioner Mysheika W. Roberts, MD, MPH, and Linden residents feel this can have an impact on overall health:
“Health is more than health care. It's really about the environment you live in. ... I'd love for more money to come to public health but, I know we can't do it alone. That's why Nationwide Children's is trying to do some public health work and I love it.”