Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

The City of Savannah has been awarded a CDC technical assistance grant to write a resident-driven Accelerator Plan guiding the redevelopment and programming of the Water Works building. The grant’s focus is increasing healthy outcomes on the Social Determinants of Health for the neighborhoods surrounding the facility. The focus areas are Food Nutrition & Security, Social Connectedness, and Built Environment. The Accelerator Plan will increase collaboration across multi-sectoral partners to create implementable short, intermediate, and long-term goals and activities that close the gap in these focus areas and create economic opportunity. 

What are the social determinants of health?

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. 

SDOH can be grouped into 5 domains: 

• Economic Stability 
• Education Access and Quality 
• Health Care Access and Quality 
• Neighborhood and Built Environment 
• Social and Community Context 

The Accelerator Plan will help ensure that the redevelopment and future uses of the Water Works Building will support eliminating inequities and improving SDOH outcomes. 

What is an Accelerator Plan?

In our project, moving the community forward is the basis of our work. Our Accelerator Plan is a technical document made possible from a grant by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) that will outline and explain our community’s diverse collaborative team working together on this effort. Further, the plan explains why we are undertaking the project and who benefits, the identified goals (short-term, intermediate, and long-term), and how incorporating these elements into the redevelopment of the historic Water Works facility will advance our mission to reduce disparities while increasing positive mental and physical health for a better Savannah.