SOUTH CAROLINA TURNING POINT BACKGROUND
In 1998, South Carolina was awarded a Two-Year $300,000 Planning Grant for Turning Point by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Since planning for the Turning Point initiative had been completed the previous year, the Planning Grant was an opportunity for South Carolina to use the funds in the local setting. South Carolina Turning Point funded three local initiatives to conduct community health assessments as well as improve the health conditions within the specified area.
Following the Turning Point Planning Grant honor, South Carolina received the Five-Year $500,000 Turning Point Implementation Grant in 2000. So far, this grant has been used to fund a second round of three local initiatives to conduct community health assessments and improve health conditions within their areas.
In addition to the Turning Point grant, South Carolina Turning Point was awarded two Four-Year $150,000 National Excellence Collaborative grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Collaborative Leadership and Information Technology grants were received in 2002. Collaborative Leadership focuses on developing new leaders to sustain the work of the Turning Point initiatives. This includes identifying individuals not yet with public health leadership, developing leadership experiences for promising state and local public health leaders, and fostering curricular enhancement to improve the skills and competencies of the public health workforce. Information Technology focuses on identifying, testing, and evaluating the application of emerging information technologies for public health improvement at the state and local levels.
