Mission

Mission

The North Carolina Center for Health & Wellness will be a leading catalyst for the prevention of chronic health conditions through promotion of healthy living among North Carolinians of all ages with an emphasis on groups with health disparities.

Priorities

The North Carolina Center for Health & Wellness serves as a statewide resource for health and wellness professionals and stakeholders by coordinating and supporting applied interdisciplinary faculty and undergraduate research, assessing community-based programs that address critical wellness issues and promoting replication of best practice approaches in preventive health and wellness. The Center's work aligns with UNC Asheville's academic programs and encourages interdisciplinary collaborations among health and wellness providers and stakeholders across the region and state.

The Center's initial focus is on three of North Carolina's most pressing health concerns: healthy weight for children , youth and young adults, workplace wellness and healthy aging.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of North Carolinians. 

We achieve this mission through our investments in three areas of focus: Health of Vulnerable Populations--improving access to care, Healthy Active Communities--increasing access to physical activity and healthy food, and Community Impact through Nonprofit Excellence--building the capacity of North Carolina nonprofits.

It is in the Healthy Active Communities Focus Area that we have invested in the North Carolina Center for Health and Wellness.  The Foundation recognizes that our state is rich in promising practices to impact obesity.  However, we see repeated instances of duplication of efforts as well as promising projects that fall away due to lack of strong outcome reporting or tracking.  We see the N.C. Center for Health and Wellness as a critical connector in our state, whose work will address three key areas-Identifying promising practices, tracking and verifying outcomes of promising practices, and catalyzing action on projects achieving strong outcomes in obesity prevention by providing training and technical assistance to other organizations across the state to implement those efforts.  Under the umbrella of the NCCHW, the Foundation anticipates an outcome of more North Carolina organizations implementing more initiatives that achieve strong health outcomes for their target population, thus reducing the rate of obesity in our state. -- Jennifer MacDougall, Senior Program Coordinator, Healthy Active Communities