Core Team Organizations and Members

Cuyahoga County Board of Health – Project Management, Food Service Guidelines Lead, and Early Childcare and Education Lead

• Nichelle Shaw, MPH
  • Healthy Communities Supervisor, REACH PI
• April Vince, MSSA, LSW
  • REACH Program Manager
• Alison Patrick, MPH, RD, LD
  • Youth Health and Wellness Supervisor, ECE Lead
• Liz Manley, MPH, CHES
  • ECE Program Manager
• Chloe Nace-Rolland, BSPH
  • FSG Coordinator and Communications Liaison
• Elly Falter, BSPH
  • ECE Coordinator
• Sarah Szabo, MSSA, LSW
  • REACH Data Analyst

Case Western Reserve University, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health – Fruit and Vegetable Program Lead

• Darcy Freedman, PhD, MPH
  • Director, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health
• Linea Webb, MSW
  • Research Associate and REACH Project Manager
• Owusua Yamoah, PhD, MA
  • Research Scientist and Community-Engaged Research Lead

Community Partners and Committees

Cuyahoga County Administration

• Cuyahoga County Employee Wellness Program
  • Throughout the year, Cuyahoga County offers education, awareness, and prevention opportunities through webinars, onsite flu shot clinics, biometric screenings, and a host of other activities to promote and sustain the well-being of Cuyahoga County employees and their families.

Faith-Based Organizations

• Monte Hebron Ciudad de Refugio
  • A Latinx church that works to impact the community by taking the gospel of Jesus and helping those in need through community outreach events and activities.
• Bethany Baptist Church and Kingdom Korner Outreach
  • Bethany Baptist Church is committed to demonstrating a Godly lifestyle in the community and exercising one’s spiritual gifts in diligent service. Bethany Baptist displays their commitment to serving the community and their members through 28 different ministries, including Kingdom Korner and the Hunger Center. Kingdom Korner is a community resource and referral center located directly across from the church, and the Hunger Center Ministry provides food and household supplies free of charge to needy families.
• Community of Faith Collaborative
  • Community of Faith Collaborative serves as a hub where meaningful dialogues and networking opportunities take place between the Hispanic faith community, local faith leaders, and community partners – including nonprofit organizations, government agencies, educational institutions, and the private sector – to serve and bring positive transformative changes to our communities. They aim to catalyze positive change in our society where mobilized faith-based groups lead collaborative efforts creating healthy, thriving, and empowered communities.

Bike Cleveland Better Streets Committees

• To support and empower Cleveland residents to improve the safety, comfort, and accessibility of our streets, Bike Cleveland’s neighborhood committees advance hyper-local infrastructure and promote alternative transportation.

Vision Zero Cleveland

• Vision Zero Cleveland is an initiative of the City of Cleveland and Cleveland City Council in partnership with community groups and various other local agencies. The Vision Zero initiative works to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all.

NEO Families for Safe Streets

• Northeast Ohio Families for Safe Streets (NEO FSS) is a group for people who have lost loved ones or who have been injured in a crash by aggressive, reckless, or careless driving, which is often behavior enabled by dangerous street design. The group is designed to provide a community of support for victims and loved ones. Families for Safe Streets is a chapter of a national organization that originated in New York City.

Early Ages Healthy Stages

• EAHS helps children and families achieve early childhood success by addressing health and well-being through childcare environments and community collaborations with the goal of all the early care and education programs in Cuyahoga County are healthy.

Nutrition Equity Committee

• The Nutrition Equity Committee was established to unify and sustain the two nutrition strategies within the REACH grant to realize nutrition equity in Cuyahoga County. Nutrition equity represents a state of having freedom, agency, and dignity in food traditions resulting in holistic health – in body, mind, and spirit – for people and communities. The REACH strategies deployed to realize nutrition equity in Cuyahoga County will vary based on the working group. Most of the activities of the Nutrition Equity Committee will occur in the working groups.
  • The purpose of this committee is to share learnings across working groups and with the wider community, provide strategic connections, and identify systemic opportunities to increase and sustain access to nutritious foods among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino communities in Cuyahoga County by combining strengths of the Nutrition Equity Committee members with tangible support from the REACH project to realize nutrition equity.
• Nutrition Equity Committee Working Groups:
  • Produce Prescription Working Group
    • The Produce Prescription Working Group is focused on developing and promoting policy solutions to increase the number of clinical sites prescribing and the number of patients receiving produce prescriptions in Cuyahoga County. The purpose of this working group is to inform the development and implementation of policies that expand and sustain culturally relevant produce prescription programming to (a) maximize freedom, agency, and dignity in food traditions that lead to holistic health among patients in areas of high food need; (b) wealth building among Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino growers, distributors, and nutrition educators involved in produce prescription program delivery; and (c) healthcare savings among clinical providers and insurers. The end goal of this committee is to develop policy supports to ensure anyone in Cuyahoga County who needs a produce prescription can get a produce prescription regardless of their health care provider, location, and/or insurance status.
  • ECE Working Group
    • Eliminating disparities and inequities in health outcomes for young children will require a multi-level, multi-sector approach centered on ECE programs. CCBH has a strong track record of working with ECE settings within the city’s urban core and surrounding first-ring communities to impact the health of Black and Hispanic children ages 0-5. The ECE strategy work will be integrated into the Nutrition Equity Committee of HIP-Cuyahoga/REACH