Empowered Thriving Communities (ETC) Cooperative

Improving health outcomes, preventing chronic diseases, and supporting Promise Zone residents

St. Louis, MO, Thursday 21, 2024 – Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis Integrated Health Network (IHN) manage the Empowered Thriving Communities (ETC) project, a transformative five-year initiative funded by a $3.8 million grant from the CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program. Targeting health disparities in the St. Louis Promise Zone, the project is designed to improve health outcomes, prevent chronic diseases, and support Black residents in the area. Led by Andwele Jolly, Denise Wilfley, and Diana Parra Perez, ETC brings together community groups and academic leaders in a collaborative effort toward health equity.

ETC members met on Wednesday at the Deaconess Foundation to celebrate achievements and strategize the cooperatives next steps for 2025. The group reviewed action needed to adapt, improve, and support member capacity and training needs, programming and policy, community outreach and marketing, and the cooperative’s structure. Recognizing that hard work deserves joyful celebrations, the group also took the time to reconnect over breakfast and recenter themselves with a yoga break.

The project’s impact was recently spotlighted in Re-Imagining Equity Through Collective Action, a short film produced by APHA TV, a media initiative of the American Public Health Association. Featuring interviews and real-life footage, the film highlights ETC’s community-centered approach, illustrating how locally-led health interventions that emphasize food security, safe activity spaces, and accessible care can effectively tackle health disparities. The ETC project stands as a model of collaboration, with Washington University and IHN leveraging community strengths to create lasting health equity.