Common Threads

In a state as large as New York, a steady stream of smart, innovative work is coming from NYHealth grantees and non-grantees alike that is relevant to NYHealth’s priority areas of Building Healthy Communities and Empowering Health Care Consumers and its focus area on Veterans’ Health. These organizations should be elevating their work and informing key stakeholders at regional, statewide, and national conferences, meetings, and other convenings. Yet, because of a lack of resources, they are often unable to do so. To address this issue, NYHealth is awarding grants through its Sponsoring Conference Participation in Support of Healthy Communities, Consumer Empowerment, and Veterans’ Health Request for Proposals (RFP). Through this RFP, NYHealth is sponsoring low-resource organizations to attend and present at local, State, and national conferences related to these areas. In 2019, NYHealth awarded Common Threads a grant to participate in this initiative as part of its efforts to build healthier communities.

Under this grant, Common Threads sent one of its New York City-based staff members to attend the American Public Health Association 2019 Annual Meeting and Expo. The theme of the conference was “Creating the Healthiest Nation: For science. For action. For health.” The conference brought individuals together from around the world to share the latest public health trends and best practices. By attending this conference, Common Threads learned helpful information about program development and evaluation. It took away lessons for its own programs and work to address childhood obesity with New York City schools and other partners. The staff member also presented a poster and engaged colleagues in discussions on Common Threads multilevel approach to promoting healthful behaviors in children.

View a complete list of conference participating grantees.