Pontiac receives $60,000 grant to improve health

Pontiac's Invest Health team will receive grant

(Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)

OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – The city of Pontiac has been selected as one of 50 Invest Health cities by Reinvestment Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Over the next year, Pontiac's Invest Health team will receive a $60,000 grant and advice from highly skilled advisors to make Pontiac a more walk and bike friendly community.

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"By creating more opportunities to live healthier, more active lifestyle, we can improve the quality of life for Pontiac residents," Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. "Invest Health transforms how our local leaders work together and connects to our countywide health improvement plan that aims to improve health outcomes. I salute the Health Division and our partners for these efforts."

The team hopes to build on exiting non-motorized transportation efforts to:

  • Identify locations that integrate people with healthcare, parks, healthy food, community centers, etc.
  • Access public transit routes
  • Make environmental improvements at locations to increase access by walking or biking

Pontiac beats out more than 180 teams across 170 communities which applied for the grant. The Oakland County Health Division, on behalf of their Healthy Pontiac We Can! coalition, will lead the new initiative along with several other representatives throughout Oakland County.

Formed in 2011, Healthy Pontiac, We Can! coalition aims to help Pontiac residents gain access to healthy food, become active, and live tobacco-free. 

"Public officials, community developers, and many others have been working in low-income neighborhoods for years, but they haven't always worked together," Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said. "Invest Health aims to align their work and help neighborhoods thrive by intentionally incorporating health into community development."