2025 | Flash Funding | Building Partnerships to Align Aging Gracefully Within the Whole Health Framework
FLASH FUNDED PROJECT | Whole Health Consortium
Building Partnerships to Align Aging Gracefully Within the Whole Health Framework
TEAM:
- Kimberly Ferren Carter – Trinity Ecumenical Parish
- Deborah O’Donnell – Trinity Ecumenical Parish
- Philip Bouknight – Trinity Ecumenical Parish
- Kathy Hosig – Public Health, Virginia Tech
- Alexandra Hanlon - CBHDS, Virginia Tech
Aging Gracefully is a new initiative launched by Trinity Ecumenical Parish (TEP) to support older adults in rural Bedford and Franklin Counties, Virginia. The region faces significant health challenges, including high rates of poverty, premature death, and limited access to care. The 2024 Community Health Assessment identified stress, physical inactivity, aging-related issues, and poor eating habits as top concerns.
This Flash-Funding project aims to align Aging Gracefully with Whole Health principles to empower individuals to live full and meaningful lives. The initiative will serve the multidimensional needs of parishioners and the broader community—spiritual, physical, emotional, financial, social, and educational—through education, activities, and programming.
The project builds on relationships formed at the 2025 Whole Health Symposium, where TEP connected with Dr. Kathy Hosig (VT/VCE) and Dr. Alexandra Hanlon (CBHDS). These collaborations will help refine the initiative’s infrastructure, support data collection and analysis, and explore future funding opportunities.