The city of Manchester has won a $25,000 prize from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for cultivating what the foundation calls a “culture of health.”
Manchester is one of seven communities to receive the prize, out of nearly 200 applicants.
The city's deputy public health director, Anna Thomas, says recognition from the foundation goes beyond the prize money.
"You become part of this larger network of communities," she says, "and often times will be invited for funding that other communities will not be invited to."
The foundation recognized many ongoing initiatives in Manchester in making the award. It noted that the city has turned fire stations into drug abuse intake centers; that elementary schools are being used to provide community social services; and that the police department now sends social workers with officers to domestic violence and drug overdose incidents when children are present.
A delegation will travel to Princeton, N.J., to pick up the prize money in October.