Advancing collaborative, community-driven solutions to impact whole-person health for everyone, everywhere in North Carolina
Our Approach
At FHLI, we embody a spirit of innovation and believe that sustainable, systems-level change is best driven by everyday people across our state. We share a common vision for whole-person, whole-community, whole-state health and work collaboratively to take common-sense steps toward that goal.
We envision a North Carolina where everyone has opportunity to attain their full health and well-being potential.
Our staff of experts and advocates strives to embody these values in all the work we do:
- Fairness: We work to build better systems where every person has a seat at the decision making table and everyone, regardless of who they are or where they live, can achieve their full potential.
- Collaboration—We seek to drive collective action by forging consensus among a wide range of partners from all corners of North Carolina, ensuring that all communities are heard and seen.
- Boldness—We embody a spirit of innovation, entrepreneurial problem-solving, and strategic risk-taking to advance transformative change.
- Community—We seek to drive collective action by forging consensus among a wide range of partners from all corners of North Carolina, ensuring that all communities are heard and seen.
- Non-partisan—We evaluate proposed policy changes through a lens of health, prioritizing efficient, effective solutions to improve health over politics or partisanship.
Launched in 1982 under the direction of rural health champion Jim Bernstein, the Foundation for Health Leadership & Innovation is a nonprofit organization that develops and supports innovative, community-driven partnerships that build a healthier North Carolina through collaboration and respect.
Health is affected by many factors beyond the medical care provided within the four walls of a hospital or clinic. While access to high-quality medical care is critical, research shows that up to 80 percent of a person’s health is determined by social and environmental factors and the behaviors that emerge as a result.
A substantial body of research has established that having an unmet resource need — including experiencing food insecurity, housing instability, unmet transportation needs and interpersonal violence or toxic stress — can significantly and negatively impact health and well-being.
FHLI and its programs aim to address all of the factors that lead to healthy, prosperous and satisfying lives for North Carolinians.