The recently-formed Community Health Needs Assessment Steering Committee met on Monday for the first of its monthly presentations.

January’s presentation focused on a variety of topics including education, food access, employment and crime.

Education

Rowan-Salisbury Schools Superintendent Dr. Kelly Withers addressed education, highlighting such points as the system’s approach to student achievement as it relates to socioeconomic status and its unique flexibility afforded as a renewal district.

“We do not accept that the economic status of our community dictates the outcomes of our system,” Withers said. “We are determined to be a system whose student outcomes dictate the economic status of our community.”

Withers indicated that amid the conversations system officials routinely have, the community’s economic conditions often rise to the top.

“(We talk about) Switching that conversation to say we are responsible and are striving towards changing our students’ outcomes so they are in the position to take hold of their economic futures and that of our community as well,” Withers said.

Due to the RSS renewal status, the school system has charter-like flexibilities such as the ability to modify the school’s schedule. Withers also pointed to the system’s use of A+ for arts and dual language immersion programs as ways that RSS is rethinking the learning process.

A major issue facing RSS, and other school systems for that matter, is the lack of preparedness for incoming kindergartners. It’s the focus of a Kindergarten Ready campaign and behind many of the system’s objectives for setting up its students for success.

Withers also mentioned how learning should not stop in the classroom.

“(We need to) Break down the walls of the classroom, get (students) out and have experiences within,” Withers said. “Learning is not just sitting in a seat and rote memorization but rather understanding how things connect.

“Waterworks has opened their doors to our students all year. I wish I could have brought some of our students here today so they could share what they learned (at the Modern Masterpieces exhibit).”

Those connections facilitate an expanded interpretation of learning and student development as it relates to achievement.

“We don’t expect kindergartners or seniors to know what they want to be when they grow up, but we do want them to understand the connections of how things work to get there,” Withers said.

Crime

Alongside crime analyst Alicia Boldon, Salisbury Major Corey Brooks took the floor after Withers to highlight how the local police department deploys a stratified policing model to increase its effectiveness.

Stratified policing involves a focus on problems through problem solving, exploring both shot and long-term solutions.

“For instance, we might have someone doing illegal dumping,” Brooks said. “Where is it coming from? Who is doing it? Maybe it is some homeless people. So, I contact our homeless liaison (Dennis Rivers). Now we are analyzing how to figure out how to attack this.”

Another technique they use is hot spot policing, focusing on places and areas with increased crime patterns. Brooks explained how the nature of criminal patterns can alter the department’s approach and that different methods of patrol, i.e. on foot or in a vehicle, can be used based on those statistics.

As an example, he mentioned how increased vehicle visibility through motor patrols can lead to a reduction in property crime, while foot patrols increase engagement and reduce violent crime.

Brooks discussed the Rowan Regional Crime Information Center, a room in the police department connected to the rest of the city through a series of cameras that are used when tracking or looking for people of interest.

The major demonstrated how that room and the cameras work through examples of suspects that were tracked and later apprehended. He also assuaged privacy concerns noting how the few officers with access to the cameras are vetted through federal security clearance protocols as well as the distortion of residential areas caught in the cameras’ lines of sight.

Food access

Rowan Helping Ministries Director of Crisis Assistance and Food Operations Kristine Wiles presented on food access and insecurity.

According to Wiles, food insecurity in Rowan County disproportionately impacts families with children and Black and Latino families. She explained how rising food and housing costs have increased food insecurity leading families to make tough decisions between food, healthcare, housing and other essentials

“The definition of food insecurity is not knowing where your next meal is coming from,” Wiles said.

Wiles also mentioned how 14 percent of Rowan County lives below the poverty level and 70 percent of RSS students are eligible for free or reduced lunch.

Through various outreach efforts and food pantry facilities, Rowan Helping Ministries is able to positively impact the food insecure. There are three food pantry locations across the county that distributed more than one million pounds of food from 2023-2024, serving 4,235 households.

A partnership with Door Dash has increased availability of deliveries to the homebound, disabled residents of the county as well as those without transportation. Additional programs also exist like the Garden of Eatin’, a volunteer-run community garden that engages Rowan Helping Ministries guests, offering ingredient support for Jeannie’s Kitchen, which provides three daily meals to those guests.

Employment

Finding full-time employment has several benefits beyond monetary compensation that can improve the health and wellness of the community at large.

N.C. Works Career Center — Rowan Leader and Manager Joseph Dismuke rounded out the speakers on Monday.

“A lot of people still don’t know what N.C. Works does,” Dismuke said. “We are not the unemployment office.”

Unfortunately, getting a job and keeping a job can come with challenges.

“There are significant barriers to employment that we try to mitigate,” Dismuke said. “We try to connect job seekers with employers and employers with job seekers.”

“When I hear employers say they can’t find folks in the area or are having a hard time finding candidates to come to work and do the things they need them to do, I ask them if they have looked at hiring veterans, or individuals receiving public assistance. A lot of them are not.”

Dismuke and Frances Thornton explained how the Centralina Workforce Development Board contributed to the increasing employment opportunities for various underserved communities to benefit Rowan County and its population as a whole.

The community health needs assessment is a quadrennial undertaking required by the state to compile comprehensive public health data from a county. The process establishes priority objectives derived from public health concerns and gives officials directional guidance for how to address those issues that rise to the top.

The next steering committee meeting will be held on Feb. 11 with a focus on health behaviors and health outcomes.