Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY

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 the Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY (NOCD-NY) a grant to participate in this initiative as part of its efforts to build healthier communities.

Under this grant, NOCD-NY sent one staff member to attend the Creating Healthy Communities: Arts + Public Health conference. This conference demonstrated exemplary art and public health practices from across the country, strategies other entities employ to overcome challenges, and techniques to incorporate program evaluation. NOCD-NY recently launched a two-year collaboration with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) focused on examining violence as a public health issue through an arts-based community engagement process. By attending this conference, NOCD-NY gained a deeper understanding of the intersection of art and public health, and to later leverage that knowledge when shaping its collaboration with the DOHMH.

View a complete list of conference participating grantees.