Healthy Savannah is working with Charles T. Brown’s Equitable Cities to take a closer look at how parks in several of Savannah’s priority neighborhoods can better serve the surrounding community.
“We selected six parks across Savannah that include Blackshear Park, W.W. Law Park, Feiler Park, Bowles C. Ford Park, Cann Park, and Kennedy Park at Carver Heights,” said Armand Turner, Physical Activity Program manager for Healthy Savannah and the YMCA of Coastal Georgia, administrators of a $3.4 million Racial & Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant. “Our goal is to see what equitable changes can be made in order for them to better serve their communities and Savannah as a whole.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded the REACH grant funding in 2018 to foster sustainable health equity among Black residents in low-wealth neighborhoods. The funds are being deployed over a five-year period in an “upstream” approach by the Savannah/Chatham County project team in concert with more than 200 community partners and organizations all committed to elevating the health and wellness of the community through policy, systems, and environmental change.