Greenville County awarded prize for efforts to create healthy culture.

Greenville County is one of five winners of the 2019 RWJF Culture of Health Prize awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The prize honors communities for "working at the forefront of advancing health, opportunity and equity. Greenville County is being nationally recognized for pursuing innovative ideas and bringing partners together to rally around a shared vision of health," according to a news release.

A delegation from Greenville County received the award today at the Robert Johnson Wood Foundation headquarters in Princeton, N.J.

Chosen from nearly 200 applicant communities across the country, Greenville County's efforts to advance health include:

OnTrack Greenville, a school-based early warning and response system designed to help keep middle-school students on track to graduate from high school. It is a community-wide collaboration among the United Way, Greenville County Schools, Prisma Health, and local nonprofit organizations.

The Greenville Housing Fund, working to expand affordable housing options and purchase land in gentrifying communities.

A resident-based advocacy effort to increase public funding to expand public transit hours and routes.

"The time was right to nominate Greenville because community partners have demonstrated a culture of collaboration and innovation to build a thriving community for all," Sally Wills, executive director of LiveWell Greenville, said in the news release. "We believe Greenville is an awardee because the leaders, both formal and informal, in this community are shining a light on the many opportunities that we have to improve health and are actively working together to make lasting change."

LiveWell Greenville, the Piedmont Health Foundation, and the Jolley Foundation collaborated to submit the application on behalf of Greenville County, according to the...