Health

VISION 

We envision an Anderson County in which active living and healthy eating are the everyday culture where we live, work, learn, pray and play.

MISSION

 To lead a unified, local partnership and movement to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Eat Smart Move More (ESMM) Anderson County is part of a statewide movement aimed at coordinating obesity prevention efforts. ESMM Anderson County unites a wide variety of community partners to work together to increase active living, improve healthy eating, and decrease adult and childhood obesity in the community.
 
For more information on Eat Smart Move More Anderson County, visit  www.eatsmartmovemoresc.org/andersoncounty

Eat Smart Move More Anderson County Partners

AnMed Health
AnMed Health Anderson Pediatrics      
AnMed Health Children’s Health Center
AnMed Health Healthy Business
Anderson Area Schools & School Districts     
Anderson Area YMCA
Anderson County Medical Society
Anderson County Parks and Recreation
Anderson County Board of Education
Chartwells School Dining Services
City of Anderson Recreation Department
Clarity Wellness, MD
Doclink
Eat Smart Move More South Carolina
HealthFitness Corporation
Healthy South Carolina Initiative
Imagine Anderson
Let’s Move—City of Anderson
Lilly Diabetes
Primary Care Associates, P.C.
Safe Routes to School
SC DHEC
Safe Routes to School
United Way of Anderson County
Upstate Forever

Anderson Area Community Gardens

Eat Smart Move More Anderson County believes that community gardens can be beneficial to the environment and to the health and well-being of our community.

Community Gardens:

• Increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables
• Increase physical activity through garden maintenance
• Improve dietary habits through education
• Reduce food bills
• Reduce risk of obesity and obesity-related diseases
• Improve mental health and promote relaxation
• Provide opportunity for socialization and increase the sense of community in a neighborhood

Community Garden Wishlist:

• Donations to purchase supplies
• Seed packets (standard or organic)
• Garden soil
• Garden gloves
• Hand trowels
• Plant markers
• Volunteers

Volunteer at a community garden!

• Westview Heights
• Renaissance Academy
• South Main Chapel and Mercy Center
• Grace Episcopal Church
• First Presbyterian Church
• St. George Episcopal Church
• DCEC at Westside Community Center
• Artisan Gardens on A and G Streets
• Anderson Free Clinic
• Anderson Interfaith Ministries (AIM)

Call 864-226-3438 for more information.

Mental Health First Aid Training

Full day Mental Health First Aid interactive trainings are offered through United Way of Anderson County. Participants learn to better identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness, with a five-step action plan to guide you through the process of reaching out and offering appropriate support. This is a national program identified on SAMHSA'S National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.

Call 864-226-3438 for more information.

United for Health

The plan and mission of the United for Health collaboration between AnMed and the United Way of Anderson County is to identify, develop strategies, and leverage resources to meet our community’s most critical needs as they relate to Health. Below you will find a breakdown of the funding for the upcoming cycle. This information in conjunction with data released from the 211 networks, has helped to shape the strategies we have put into place to meet the needs of the residents of Anderson County. We have begun to address these critical community needs through various partnerships and community collaborations.

One of the changes that we are seeing highlighted as a result of COVID-19 is Mental Health. These uncertain times have caused stress and anxiety for almost everyone. This crisis has not affected just one group of people it has touched the lives of everyone.  Many individuals are currently facing uncertain times and they have never been in a position of needing resources or access to care before. It is our mission and duty to ensure that those individuals have those resources available to them when they are ready to access them.           

Sheltering has been another area of need that has become critical during our response to COVID-19. Although crime is down the rate of Domestic Violence calls has seen an increase with individuals being confined to their homes. Partnering with Safe Harbor in Anderson County ensures that individuals who are the victims of Domestic violence during this time have somewhere to turn and access to resources when seeking shelter from an abusive situation.

Since the start of COVID-19 sheltering at the Salvation Army, the only homeless shelter in Anderson County has looked very different. Since the shelter was placed on an official shelter in place lockdown this left many homeless and vulnerable without access to showers, restrooms, and handwashing stations. In partnership with the Salvation Army and leveraging several resources at hand the UWAC was able to assist in securing a showering station, port-a-potties, and a hygiene station outside the shelter. This partnership was also able to organize the counties only homeless COVID-19 quarantine shelter should an individual become diagnosed and need to self-quarantine. 

In responding to COVID-19 we must keep individuals with basic minor health care issues and medical needs away from the Emergency Department, for their safety and that of the hospital staff.  The Anderson Free Clinic partnership with UWAC allows for individuals to receive medical care and prescriptions. This allows the hospital system to focus on the current issue of COVID-19 cases and testing.

The United Way has developed relationships with partner agencies in Anderson County for the past 75 years.  The United Way has hosted an AmeriCorps team that specializes in Disaster Preparedness and Response for the past three years. Through this partnership with AmeriCorps, the United Way of Anderson County has developed an invaluable partnership with the Anderson County Emergency Management Department. This has allowed for an inclusive and complete response to the COVID-19 crisis in the Anderson community. We have the ability to utilize a large volunteer component as well as the 211 system that is critical in the event of any crisis. The benefit that both AnMed and the United Way of Anderson County will provide to individuals is consistency and access to resources across the county. This consistency will create a foundation on which these programs can grow and transform as needs change within our community as time goes on. The purpose of these collaborations is to strengthen the foundation on which we are building community response and resilience.

It is our hope that through your generous funding all individuals who reach out a hand for assistance during these times will not find that hand empty, but full of the valuable resources that will allow them to get back on their feet, grow, and move forward in the hope that they might one day be back and in an even better place than they were before COVID-19.

Funded Programs