JANS – Coahoma County’s Aaron E. Henry (AEH) Community Health Services joined with Southern Bancorp Community Partners, a community development financial institution (CDFI), to launch the Health + Wealth Collaboration, a dual purpose community resource providing access to health care and financial support within the same facility. The collaborative effort will be used to examine the effects of poverty on health outcomes.
“The Mississippi Delta is an area marked by deep intergenerational poverty and racial inequality across sectors that negatively affects health outcomes for area residents,” said Aurelia Jones Taylor, CEO of AEH Community Health Services Center in Clarksdale. “Our objective in this collaboration is to engage diverse partners and stakeholders to work together to promote health, equity, and sustainability while simultaneously advancing other goals such as promoting job creation and economic stability.”
Through the Health + Wealth collaboration, health center patients and staff will be provided with Aaron E. Henry’s coordinated system of care augmented by Southern Bancorp Community Partners’ financial development services.
“As one of America’s oldest and largest CDFIs, the Southern Bancorp organization has a long history of finding unique solutions to address economic disparities,” said Kenya Davenport, Interim President of Southern Bancorp Community Partners. “This partnership is one of the ways we’re meeting people where they are to address economic disparity. Health and wealth outcomes are very often tied together, and by combining support in both areas, we believe we can create positive, generational impacts in this community and eventually beyond it.”
Coahoma County is ranked among the least healthy counties in Mississippi in terms of health outcomes and contributing factors, making it a key location to launch the project.
Some of those addressing the launch event included Clarksdale’s Mayor Chuck Espy, Former State Sen. Robert Jackson, Delta Regional Authority Co-Chair Dr. Corey Wiggins, State Director Trina George of USDA Rural Development, and Dr. Brookshield Laurent, Executive Director of the Delta Population Health Institute, as well as representatives from state economic and healthcare organizations.
