IACH connects Furman students with community health advocates

Furman University students connected with a room full of community leaders on the frontline of addressing social isolation at the annual Building Better Tomorrows Conference. 

Hosted April 16 by the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health and the Institute for Child Success, this year’s Building Brighter Tomorrows gathered advocates, health professionals and educators at the Younts Conference Center on Furman’s campus.  

Healthy Communities by Design Executive Director Risa Wilkerson was the keynote speaker for this year’s Building Better Tomorrows Conference. Photo by Brian Erkens.

Students were invited to the keynote speech and breakout discussions afterward as part of a Cultural Life Program, allowing them to network and engage with professionals from a variety of backgrounds. The keynote speaker was Risa Wilkerson, executive director of Healthy Places by Design, a nonprofit that promotes community-led action and place-based strategies for advancing health and wellbeing equity. 

Wilkerson said social isolation and loneliness have become more prevalent issues across demographics, and the World Health Organization indicates it has negative impacts on physical, mental and economic health. Healthy Places by Design has promoted approaches to strengthening social connection within communities, including having inclusive public spaces, transportation systems that connect people and housing environments that build a shared sense of community ownership. 

From classroom lessons to community connections 

Adrian Frye ’27, a public health major who attended Wilkerson’s talk and a workshop discussion afterward, said she was surprised by how relatable the topic was. Frye had been a student athlete in high school, but when she came to Furman and didn’t join a team, she felt the loss of social connection in her life. At her apartment complex, a group of neighbors started getting together for Sunday dinners each week, alleviating that loneliness and building tighter bonds. 

“I believe that social connection is foundational to public health because to support communities, you must meaningfully connect with them,” she said. “To me, this means working with communities and not for them, listening to their stories and meeting them where they are, not where we think they should be.” 

Associate professor of health sciences Anna Cass encouraged Frye and the other public health students to attend the conference. Frye said it was exciting to see principles they learned in the classroom applied to practical work done in their own community. Students in attendance discussed public health concerns with representatives from the South Carolina Department of Public Health, Greenville County parks and recreation, the American Academy of Pediatrics and multiple community nonprofits. 

“I think this speaks to the kind of opportunities Furman creates for students when you hear them contributing to conversations like these,” said Denise Wiklacz, director of operations at IACH. “IACH is a connector linking our campus to the broader community. This was a chance for students of all backgrounds to connect with others on a topic they might not know much about, but that they’ve seen examples of in their lives.”