The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has selected Chelsea as one of eight recipients of the 2017 RWJF Culture of Health Prize. This award recognizes communities demonstrating sustained commitment to enabling all residents to achieve healthier lives.
Chelsea earned national recognition by developing creative approaches and mobilizing diverse stakeholders around a common health vision. Among more than 200 communities that applied nationwide, Chelsea stood out for its work in: lowering diesel pollution, partnering to revitalize the waterfront, delivering aid to vulnerable populations, fostering inclusion for all residents, addressing critical public health challenges including substance misuse and trauma, and involving young people in environmental and food justice initiatives.
“So many residents, city leaders, businesses and community partners have come together to make Chelsea a healthier, more just community in which to live,” Roseann Bongiovanni, who serves as Executive Director of GreenRoots and has lived in Chelsea her entire life, stated. “I am so grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for recognizing those efforts with the prestigious Culture of Health Award. It exemplifies a whole community coming together for the betterment of our people, our environment, our future.”
According to Richard Besser, MD, president and CEO of RWJF: “For the past five years, RWJF Culture of Health Prize communities have inspired hope across the country. We welcome these new eight Prize communities who are forging partnerships to improve health for their residents,” “There are now 35 prize-winning communities across the country that are thinking big, building on their strengths, and engaging residents as equal partners to tackle the problems that they see.”
Leslie Aldrich, Associate Director of the Center for Community Health Improvement at Massachusetts General Hospital, noted that “Being nationally recognized for this work, despite the many health challenges this community has faced and that still exist, is a reflection of the community’s resilience and commitment to one another,” “The friendships and partnerships that have been forged in the effort to make Chelsea a healthier place to live are true and lasting and what make Chelsea such a unique community.”
Chelsea will receive $25,000 and membership in a network of Prize-winning communities, with its achievements promoted nationally. The seven other winning communities this year are: Algoma, Wisconsin; Allen County, Kansas; Garrett County, Maryland; Richmond, Virginia; San Pablo, California; Seneca Nation of Indians in western New York; and Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Massachusetts now leads all states in the number of RWJF Culture of Health Prize winners. Previous Massachusetts winners were Cambridge (2013), Fall River (2013), Everett (2015), and Lawrence (2015).
Prize winners must demonstrate excellence across six key criteria:
Adopting the broadest possible definition of health.
Committing to long-term policy solutions and sustainable systems change.
Building shared conviction about equal health opportunity.
Mobilizing the combined influence of leaders, collaborators, and residents.
Maximizing and leveraging all available resources.
Tracking and communicating achievements and outcomes.
City Manager Tom Ambrosino remarked: “I am so very proud of the City and all of its non-profit partners,” “This prestigious award from Robert Wood Johnson serves to confirm the incredible, collaborative work that occurs daily in this community to improve the health and well-being of its residents.”
This year’s Prize winners will convene at the Culture of Health Prize Celebration and Learning Event held at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey on October 11-12.
Additional information about Chelsea’s initiatives and the other Prize winners, including videos and photos, is available at www.rwjf.org/Prize.