The Louisville Health Advisory Board (LHAB) met on Thursday, May 20th as part of the 2021 Bi-Monthly All LHAB meeting series. Part of the LHAB’s mission is to share community information to make cross collaboration easier and duplication of projects less prevalent. To this end, this bi-monthly meeting focused on community projects that affect the health of Louisvillians - and can be viewed via this recording.

Dr. Bryan Loy, co-chair of the LHAB, Medical Director – Clinical Strategy, Humana, kicked the meeting off with a welcome and introduction to the meeting. Co-chair, Gabriell Gassaway, Chief of Staff, Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness, gave the group an update on COVID Vaccines and projects that the health department is working on or planning for in the next year. The health department is recommending you continue to wear a mask when you are around people that you do not know the vaccination status of. Also, Gabriell asked if you all have any ideas on how to reach teens over the summer, please contact the health department.

Then, it was time to hear from community leaders on important projects being launched in the next few months. DeWana Hadder, director of United Community for Metro United Way, shared a pilot that Metro United Way is doing with Unite Us to help provide support to families struggling with housing insecurity. The pilot project, which includes cash donations of $250,000 from both Metro United Way and Unite Us, provides funds to help families on essentials that affect their ability to pay rent, for example car repairs. The pilot project will track how the money is distributed and provide data on causes housing insecurity.

Long-time LHAB member, Karl Schmitt, President of the Sports Commission, provided a sneak preview of the Sports Fun(d), that will launch on June 9. The Sports Commission have participated in the LHAB since the beginning of the program. The Sports Commission has been working on specific programs to help kids exercise. Physically active kids are healthier physically, mentally and emotionally. We know that certain zip codes are underserved for organized sports; COVID has exacerbated this issue. The Sports Commission has created a grant program to increase organize sports. The commission will not oversee any programs, they will fund these with partners and help coordinate the programs. The activities will take place in the neighborhoods that the kids live, specifically, Shawnee, Russell, Newburg. The Commission will partner with organizations that are already doing quality work in these neighborhoods or partners that they are confident can provide quality programs.

As part of the American Rescue Plan, Louisville is receiving $388 million dollars. Jeff O’Brien, Develop Louisville Director and Co-Chief, Louisville Metro, joined the meeting and shared an overview and update on the Build Back Better, Together initiative. This initiative included the 6 focus areas government and community leaders identified as priorities for our city’s recovery related to the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice challenges. Jeff also provided an overview of the guidance and the process the city will be following to distribute the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.

The meeting closed with updates from two of LHAB’s committees. Erica Lemberger, Associate Professor, Spalding University’s School of Nursing – and the newest co-chair of the LHAB’s Behavioral Health committee – shared an update on suicide prevention training that is available for community organizations and clinicians. Tom Walton, co-chair of the LHAB’s Community Coordination of Care (CCC) committee and Executive in Residence, University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences advised participants of work underway related to CCC’s Respite to Recovery project including how advocacy and ARPA funding are integral to its implementation. Dior Cotten, Population Health Strategy Lead, Humana and LHAB lead shared that the West End COVID-19 vaccination site at Whitney M. Young Elementary would be operational through Thursday, May 27th and that through the Derby Equity Community Initiative, Humana has partnered with Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Festival with JusticeFest taking place on May 22nd at the Kentucky International Convention Center during which students present DEI project ideas to panels of community and business leaders for feedback and resource support.

We will be back with our next meeting at the end of August and hope to see you there!