Advocates, Community Members Discuss Child Health Outcomes in Cabarrus County

Local health providers, neighborhood organizations, families, and local government officials joined NC Child in Concord to discuss social determinants of health, oral health, regional barriers to healthcare access, and overall child health outcomes in Cabarrus County. The convening represented the fifth stop on NC Child’s 2024 listening tour.

NC Child focuses on advancing public policies that improve the health and wellbeing of children in North Carolina. The statewide nonprofit’s listening tour, which is visiting 20 counties between July and September, is focused on promoting thoughtful and open dialogues on regional healthcare access and its impact on child health outcomes.

“North Carolina is a big state, and every community faces different challenges when it comes to accessing health care—and these challenges have a direct impact on child well-being,” said NC Child Director of Community Engagement Kelvin Stallings. “Our goal is to understand these local and regional differences so we can advocate for policies that better address what our state’s children and families face.”

At the listening tour event, attendees spoke about their experiences around health care access in the region. “I appreciate NC Child coming to Cabarrus County,” said Ann Benfield, executive director of the Cabarrus Partnership for Children. “The conversation shined a light on opportunities we have to work with clinics and families to improve health outcomes for children in our county.”

Other attendees shared their thoughts around key social determinants of health. “We’re gaining really valuable insights into how these different factors influence family and child health,” said Stallings. “Our participants in Cabarrus County underscored the importance of language accessibility in health care access, and how much more important bilingual care becomes if you or a member of your family has special health care needs.”

Stallings says that the issue of language accessibility has come up in previous tour stops. “Each conversation we’ve had on this tour has shed light into the different challenges communities face when it comes to accessing oral and medical care,” said Stallings. “But we’re at the point in this listening tour where we’re starting to notice recurring themes—language accessibility being one of the more prominent. We’re eager to see what other themes emerge as we continue this tour across the state.”

Key takeaways from NC Child’s 2024 Listening Tour will be compiled into a report on statewide and regional trends in health care access and child health outcomes and be used as a resource for when the nonprofit talks with North Carolina lawmakers about policies to improve child well-being.

“Every child in North Carolina deserves a healthy childhood and a vibrant future,” said NC Child Executive Director Erica Palmer Smith. “And we do that by advancing evidence-based and community-driven public policies.”