COURTESY NOVANT HEALTH

Officials from Novant Health and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library announced a partnership to better deliver health information to residents. The Novant Wellness Hub launches this month.

Novant Health and Charlotte Mecklenburg County Library have announced a $1 million partnership to better deliver health information to residents.

The collaboration will work to address the social determinants of health, advance health equity, and aims to make a sustainable impact in the community. Novant Health will invest $500,000 to the CommonSpark campaign and another $500,000 in in-kind person support for program and service delivery over the next five years.

“As our libraries strive to support the health and well-being of our library patrons and the community at large, we are working to expand access to health resources that go beyond books and materials,” said Marcellus Turner, CEO and chief librarian at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. “We are very appreciative of this partnership with Novant Health, creating access to additional health and wellness resources, expertise and services. We know that the communities of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County will benefit greatly from these health centers in our libraries.”

The community well-being partnership includes launch of the Novant Health Wellness Hub at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, which will expand “high-impact health services” delivered across library locations.

“We’re honored to come together with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library to form this unique partnership and expand availability of health services within our communities,” said Jesse Cureton, Novant Health executive vice president and chief consumer officer. “The library has always been a multigenerational space for learning and well-being. Together, we’ll offer services to promote health equity through expanded access and education.”  

Surveys were conducted at Hickory Grove and West Boulevard communities to assess services that would be beneficial to residents.

Based on feedback, the focus of the Hub will be nutritional guidance, well-being at different life stages, health services, health screenings and information on diagnoses and diseases.

Other services provided include:

• Monthly education series with guest speakers on topics such as diabetes, health at every age, nutrition, and mental health

• An onsite community health worker to help residents locate health and social services like food, housing, and access to primary care

• Health screenings and immunization events for under and uninsured children

• Access to Novant Health’s digital resource library

• Access to sponsored activities across the community

• Access to the MyCommunity (Find Help) platform

The hub will better serve all residents, including underserved communities by providing free health information that will save them a trip to the doctor.

“The goal in hope is for those individuals – African Americans, Latinx folks and all folks across our community,” said Dr. Jerome Williams Jr., senior vice president of consumer growth and engagement at Novant Health. “The hope is that with the information, with the connectivity to Health and Human Services, with the connection to health services, that we can truly improve the health of communities one person at a time.”

Both Novant Health and the library system envision engaging with more partners to scale the impact as needed and create replicas of the collaboration model for other communities within and outside the region. This partnership is one of few collaborations in the United States between a library system and a health care provider.

The first phase for the wellness hub will launch at Hickory Grove and West Boulevard locations this month. Services at CMS Library will roll out in phases over the next few years.

The $143 million initiative is a comprehensive public-private campaign to ignite change in the library system. Funding includes construction of a new main library, library administration center, technology, innovation and programming, an endowment and annual operating support.

For more about CommonSpark, visit foundation.cmlibrary.org/commonspark.

Aaliyah Bowden, who covers health at The Post, is a Report For America corps member.

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