Health Equities Focus
There are two important dimensions of health that Community Engagement focuses on:
1) Health equity
Health equity means that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be healthy. This requires removing economic and social obstacles such as poverty and discrimination, and their consequences, including powerlessness and lack of access to good jobs with fair pay, quality education and housing, safe environments and health care.
2) Upward mobility
Upward mobility is the capacity to rise to a higher social or economic position. Communities affected by social and economic inequality often don’t have the resources they need to be healthy and make healthy choices.
The Community Engagement vision is to provide programs and services that are strategically focused on achieving health equity – improving health and upward mobility in all communities, especially those that need it most.
Role of Medical Students – Get Involved & Make a Difference
As medical students at the Charlotte Campus, you will be given access to Novant Health leadership for community engagement and become involved in the healthcare system’s initiatives and programs to address health equity. Students will have protected time to explore and experience what is going on in the Charlotte community.
In collaboration with the campus leadership, students can design their own experience with Charlotte resources or participate in Novant Health programs. These are the 2021 Community Engagement initiatives:
Community Care Cruiser
The Community Care Cruiser, a 40-foot mobile clinic, provides remarkable healthcare outside the walls of Novant Health facilities. This cruiser provides vaccines to uninsured children in the greater Charlotte area. Mobile mammography is also an option.
MyCommunity
Novant Health MyCommunity lets you search for free or reduced-cost services like medical care, food and job training.
Novant Health Cares
Novant Health Cares is our simple, accessible and inclusive volunteer program that provides a variety of opportunities for Novant Health team members to get involved in the communities we serve. By leveraging teams across the organization, we can give back to those who need us most.
One Charlotte Health Alliance
Novant Health and Atrium Health have joined together with the Mecklenburg County Health Department to form the ONE Charlotte Health Alliance (OCHA). The purpose of OCHA is to provide needed medical care and wellness services to the members of the Charlotte community who need it most. http://www.oneclthealth.org/
Wellness Webinars
Wellness Webinars are short, engaging and easy-to-understand panel conversations featuring Novant Health and community experts.
Remarkable You Screenings
Novant Health Community Engagement offers Remarkable You screenings free of charge in the communities surrounding Novant Health medical centers. These screenings provide blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, triglycerides and prediabetes information to help have a better indication of personal risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes.