By Tim Gardner
One of the most important meetings for citizens of the North Carolina High Country counties of Avery, Mitchell and Yancey will be held on Thursday, November 3rd.
That’s when the Avery-Mitchell-Yancey (AMY) Wellness Foundation will gather input to provide advice and guidance in helping prioritize its funding priorities for 2023 during its Regional Convening Meeting, which will be held in the banquet hall at the Cross Street Commerce Center (the old Ellen’s Knitting Mill Building) located at 31 Cross Street in Spruce Pine (Mitchell County). The meeting will run from 3:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.
The Wellness Foundation’s current funding areas include: Capacity Building, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rapid Response, Family Resilience and Collaboration and Planning with an emphasis on Housing, Mental Health and Food Security. The Foundation is seeking general community input as well as from health advocates, nonprofit leaders and those with experience concerning those topics and about how to better understand the current health landscape and how it has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020.
This event is free. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP before Friday, October 21 to Caitlin Johnson by email at c.trewjohnson@amywellnessfoundation.org.
All concerned citizens, business leaders and other representatives of Avery, Mitchell, and Yancey counties are encouraged to attend.
The AMY Wellness Foundation is committed to bringing communities together in such settings to collectively create a plan for change and its officials invites the public to attend these meetings and become a “Positive Force for Change!”
Information collected by the AMY Wellness Foundation will be used to guide efforts to address the aforementioned disparities and for grant-writing purposes. Millions of dollars are available through various trusts and charitable foundations and organizations for the AMY Wellness programs.
“The Wellness Foundation prides itself on being a community-led Foundation. With everything we do, we aim to create change with action through community input,” said Johnson, Associate Director of the AMY Wellness Foundation. “Our first Regional Convening Meeting was held in early 2020 and helped shape the Foundation’s funding areas for our grant partners. During the past two years, as we know, so much has changed and the Foundation staff members wants to make sure we remain connected to the community. We want to hear from the community about our current funding priorities to ensure our funding efforts are still in line with community needs.”
The AMY Wellness Foundation was established as a result of the Mission Health System sale to HCA Healthcare to ensure health and wellness will continue to be a main priority in Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties. Its leaders define the Foundation’s mission as: To work collaboratively to find preventative, up-stream, and innovative solutions to alleviate health disparities to transform the three-county region. Indeed, it functions to improve the health and well-being of the residents of those counties by partnering with local nonprofit organizations, fostering connections among services and supporting programs that make their counties and the communities within each over-all healthier places.
Through community outreach efforts, the AMY Wellness Foundation officials have learned there is a multitude of impactful work being done throughout the region it serves to improve the health of our communities, yet with much more to accomplish. “We are most appreciative to community members and nonprofit leaders who are dedicated and passionate about effecting change in Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties,” said Luke Howe, Executive Director of the AMY Wellness Foundation. “It is of utmost importance that we listen to the people who live, work and love our communities. Because without our partners, the Foundation could not strategically serve our community neighbors.”
He continued: “After listening to their stories, three issues repeatedly were named as top priorities; food insecurity, mental health and affordable adequate housing. It is no surprise that community health assessments of this region throughout the years also identified these three issues among top priorities. Again, as community health advocates, we want to ensure we hear from our community members and leaders concerning these issues and all other wellness topics in the areas we serve that need addressing. Together, we will develop a better understanding of the greatest needs and how we can collectively provide the most help.”
Further details about the AMY Wellness Foundation can be obtained through the following means: logging onto its Internet web site address (amywellnessfoundation.org); phoning (828) 592-4082; or writing (via U.S. Mail) AMY Wellness Foundation, 3 Cross Street, Suite 266, Spruce Pine, NC 28777.
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