In 2012, the leadership of the John Rex Endowment embarked on an assessment of funding areas in order to hone its focus and gain and even deeper impact. In the early part of the process, a commitment was made to continue funding in the areas of Healthy Weight and Nonprofit Capacity Building. The next phase of the funding assessment brought in community involvement and resulted in the selection of two additional funding areas: Injury Prevention, and Mental Health, Social and Emotional Wellbeing. That work resulted in Our Plan for Impact, 2013-2018.
Goals and Impact
The work of the Plan focused on five goals that enabled our grantees and community partners to have demonstrable impact upon Wake County's children and families by:
- Improving policies and implementing changes to the built environment that increased children's access to healthy foods and active living opportunities in Wake County municipalities;
- Increasing the number of people and organizations engaged in activities that were effective in preventing injury and ensuring the overall safety of Wake County children;
- Developing and enhancing the contribution of Wake County's "places and spaces" to improve the mental health of children;
- Advancing the effectivesness of coalitions that worked to prevent childhood overweight and obesity rates; preven injury and ensure the overall safety of children; and support children's mental health, social and emotional well-being; and
- Building the strength and sustainability of nonprofit organizations that supported Wake County children in living healthy lives.
We are confident that the resulting projects had a major impact upon select areas of child health and well-being. We will share our results with our grantees and the community when we have a more complete picture of what has been achieved. One results publication that was produced as part of Our Plan for Impact is already available online. Entitled “Local Governments as Health Champions,” it relates the findings of six municipalities who created healthier environments for children by increasing access to healthy foods and active living opportunities.
When the John Rex Endowment began implementation of our Strategic Roadmap in 2019, there were active grants that supported the work of Our Plan of Impact that will continue their work through 2020.
What We Funded
During the period of 2013 - 2018, the John Rex Endowment awarded nearly $17 million in grants to support Our Plan for Impact, 2013-2018. The grant projects supported work toward our goals of Healthy Weight and Active Living; Preventing Injury; Positive Mental Health, Social and Emotional Well-being; Nonprofit Capacity Building; and Coalition Effectiveness.