Project H.E.A.L.
Project H.E.A.L. (Health. Equity. Art. Learning.) is a program by IDEAS xLab and Creative Agents of Change Foundation designed to discovers new ways for using art + culture tools to reduce health disparities, devise innovative ways to measure health outcomes, and promote mental and physical well-being in the neighborhood of Smoketown.
Smoketown Laundry
The "Smoketown Laundry" is a new project being planned in our community. Current partners working on the project include YouthBuild Louisville, IDEAS xLab, Simmons College, Bates Memorial CDC, Jewish Family and Career Services and Bingham Fellows. The Smoketown Laundry uses an innovative approach to developing community-wide strategies to improve the health of Smoketown residents by transforming an unused, vacant property into a laundromat, with multi-functional space that focuses on the other "everyday life" things that impact health including economic well being, social support and community safety.
The Smoketown Laundry project’s initial efforts will focus on: 1) developing the infrastructure and business plan for opening the laundromat; 2) hiring a Community Health Connector to help build capacity within the Smoketown community and to increase understanding of health equity and how it impacts community health, and 3) developing plans for opening a minority-owned small business incubator to help with Smoketown entrepreneurial efforts and developing career readiness programs.