Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation
Annual Report Fiscal Year 2013–2014
5
Healthy Active Communities
Pastor Keith happily reports that
several students have continued
volunteering beyond their required
community service hours.
Wherever People Are,
There’s Always A Path To Health.
The goal of Healthy Active Communities—
one of the Foundation’s focus areas—
is to ensure that North Carolinians have
access to healthy, local foods and places
to play and be active. In order to create
that access, it is critical to address the
places where North Carolinians spend
their time. To that end, the Foundation
invests in providing healthy choices in
childcare centers, schools, communities
and churches.
Willona Stallings is acutely aware
of the need to incorporate healthy habits
in places of worship. “Each Sunday,
church pews across the state are filled
with people who seek to improve their
lives but may be unaware of their health
risks or how to address them,” she says.
Willona is the Partners in Health and
Wholeness (PHW) Program Coordinator
for the North Carolina Council of Churches.
PHW was created in 2009 with the support
of the Foundation to improve the health
of clergy and congregants of all faiths.
While churches focus on improving
spiritual health, they can also be
powerful levers to improve physical
health. By building partnerships between
congregations and health organizations,
PHW provides the necessary tools for
people of faith to lead healthier, more
fulfilling lives through increased physical
activity, healthy eating, and tobacco use
prevention and cessation.
Core to the PHW initiative is the PHW
Certification Program, which qualifies
places of worship on Bronze, Silver
or Gold levels. The levels are based
on policy, practice and environmental
changes that facilitate healthy living.
These include changes to congregational
meals and snacks, opportunities for
physical activity, establishment of a
To learn more about
Partners in Health and
Wholeness, please visit
H I GH SCHOOL
STUDENTS
EAT VEGETABLES
L E S S T H A N
ONCE A DAY
FOUR
T EN
IN
4
Now we don’t have to
tell people what’s growing
in the garden; they are
telling each other.
Pastor Keith Edwards
of Ward
Street Mission in High Point
