Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Selects 2016 RWJF Culture of Health Prize Finalists

Princeton, N.J.—The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) announced the 16 communities that have been chosen as finalists for the fourth annual RWJF Culture of Health Prize. The Prize honors communities that place a high priority on health and bring partners together to drive local change.

Selected from nearly 200 applicants, the following 16 finalist communities are one step closer to the coveted national Prize:

• 24:1 Community Region, Missouri
• Clayton County, Georgia
• Columbia Gorge Region, Oregon & Washington
• Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Louisville, Kentucky
• Manchester, New Hampshire
• Miami-Dade County, Florida
• New Haven, Connecticut
• Oakland, California
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Rancho Cucamonga, California
• Santa Monica, California
• Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe, Washington
• Trenton, New Jersey
• Tulsa County, Oklahoma
• White Mountain Apache Tribe, Arizona

"The RWJF Culture of Health Prize finalist communities are working together to put good health within everyone’s reach,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, RWJF president and CEO. “We look forward to learning more from these 16 finalist communities about how they are working across multiple fronts to help people thrive."

The Prize is an annual competition that awards $25,000 to up to 10 communities that are making great strides in their journey to better health. Each winner will also have their success story celebrated broadly to inspire change across the nation.

To earn Prize finalist status, communities had to demonstrate how they excelled in six criteria:

• Defining health in the broadest possible terms.
• Committing to sustainable systems changes and policy-oriented, long-term solutions.
• Cultivating a shared and deeply-held belief in the importance of equal opportunity for health.
• Harnessing the collective power of leaders, partners and community members.
• Securing and making the most of available resources.
• Measuring and sharing progress and results.
  

Over the next three months teams from RWJF and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (UWPHI), along with national leaders from throughout the country, will visit the finalist communities to learn more about how they are working across multiple fronts to improve health for all. UWPHI manages the RWJF Culture of Health Prize.

The Prize winners will be announced in September. Find out more about the previous 20 Prize winners at www.rwjf.org/prize.

About the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute is the focal point within the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health to address questions of what it takes to improve health across the population. The Institute advances health and well-being for all by developing and promoting evidence-informed approaches to policy and practice at the local, state and national levels. The Institute leads the work on the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps and manages the RWJF Culture of Health Prize. For more information, visit http://uwphi.pophealth.wisc.edu.

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working with others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.