Park Heights Community Farmers Market

The Park Heights Community Health Alliance seeks to collaborate in the improvement of the health of Baltimore's Park Heights community through health and wellness initiatives, environmentalism, community education and service. Park Heights, a Baltimore neighborhood located just northwest of Druid Hill Park, was once a thriving middle-class community. However, over the past decades the neighborhood has deteriorated rapidly in key outcomes such as employment, homeownership, crime, and community health. In fact, Lower Park Heights is a neighborhood with some of the poorest health status indicators in the city, representing some of the highest mortality rates due to cardiovascular disease, cancer, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and homicide in all of Baltimore. This disproportionate burden of disease is also intrinsically linked to socioeconomic status of families within the community, which are overwhelmingly composed of ethnic minorities (99% of residents are non-white) and live off a median household income of just over $21,000 per year – approximately ten thousand dollars less than the median of households in Baltimore City overall.1 To combat these overwhelming statistics, PHCHA was established in 1996 by a group of concerned community members supported by Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. Although initially founded to address the gap in health resources available to single men, particularly those with substance abuse issues, PHCHA has expanded its reach to include various other programs, services, and events aimed at improving the health of all members of the community. Today, we work reverse health disparities as they currently exist by inspiring self-determination within individuals and families, so that they may be proactive about their own wellness. We believe that health is a basic human right and is essential for individuals to be positive, engaged, and productive members of the community. With this in mind, we strive to be a resource that moves the community toward a better understanding of health navigation, wellness as a lifestyle, environmental justice, and community development supported by the dual pillars of education and service. We envision a world where "health" is defined in comprehensive ways rather than as the simple absence of disease; where individuals and families have equal access to the knowledge, tools and resources that can improve their health; and where all members of communities like Park Heights are empowered to be proactively engaged as advocates of their own health. We're one hundred percent committed to our efforts to realize this vision, and earnestly invite others to join our cause. Coordinated success is both achievable and crucial – and anything less is unacceptable.