About the SC Roadmap

Social Determinants of Health are the social and economic conditions that influence health outcomes. The Roadmap is a collaborative effort to understand and address social determinants of health in SC. This site seeks to foster communication, share good ideas, and provide useful tools.

Our Mission

It is our belief that every South Carolinian has a right to the fundamental building blocks of a good life, and that it is our collective duty to provide these basic resources to every resident of our state. By building consensus and creating connectivity across the wide spectrum of those with a vested interest in public health, we hope to create not just a unified vision of how to best build this better future, but to put than plan into action.

History of Effort

Funded by Blue Cross® Blue Shield® of South Carolina Foundation and The Duke Endowment, the endeavor that would become known as “The Roadmap” was designed to address social determinants of health in South Carolina. Housed at The Center for Applied Research and Evaluation at the University of South Carolina, the team at CARE conducted a landscape assessment of SDOH in South Carolina to launch the effort.

CARE interviewed over 40 key stakeholders throughout the state, individuals representing community-based organizations, nonprofits, medical systems, and government agencies, to better understand the situation. A consensus of concern arose, with several vulnerable populations identified. Adults with chronic illness, mothers with children five and under, those struggling with mental health issues and addiction, and the broader issues of housing and food insecurity became the early focus of the work.

Click on the image of each phase to learn more…

Phase 1 – The Roadmap

With the landscape assessment complete, a Design Committee was formed, and a new player joined the effort—HealthBegins, a California-based consultancy. It was February of 2020. Shortly after the new phase of work began, the pandemic hit. The pandemic both heightened the urgency surrounding SDOH and made it more difficult to address those concerns.

Months passed as the world struggled to cope with a new reality. Remote meetings became the norm, and work resumed on a report generated by HealthBegins entitled, A Path Forward: A Roadmap to Improve Social Determinants of Health Across South Carolina.

This report—and then the entirety of the effort— came to be called, “The Roadmap.”

The report summarized the findings of the landscape assessment and the recommendations of the Design Committee in the hope of turning talk into action. While there were a wide range of challenges to be faced, the pandemic remained a massive hurdle that threatened to put an indefinite pause on the effort.

Phase 2 – The Learning Collaborative

Instead of letting inertia undermine all the progress made so far, the effort pivoted toward a focus on food insecurity, with the South Carolina Roadmap to Food Security Learning Collaborative launching in January of 2021.

The Learning Collaborative could be done remotely and therefore circumvented the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, and food insecurity had been identified as the most widespread issue in South Carolina.

Once again, CARE, with its experience facilitating learning collaboratives, played a lead role in the work. HealthBegins remained on board, with their SDOH expertise forming much of the curriculum. The mission of the Learning Collaborative was to discover and define ways of reducing food insecurity in South Carolina, with those methods and pathways forming a prototype for future work to emulate.

When the Learning Collaborative wrapped up a year later, the effort was found to be well worth the time and effort, with several success stories demonstrating just what can be accomplished when SDOH is addressed.

Phase 3 – The Cores

With the conclusion of the Learning Collaborative, a new phase launched. Originally planned by the Design Committee early in the process, three Cores were formed to move the endeavor forward. The Data Core, Programmatic Core, and Administrative Core continued the work started by the Learning Collaborative, as the mission remains to identify and create pathways aimed at addressing SDOH in South Carolina.

The Data Core’s vision has centered upon robust data sharing processes among organizations such as healthcare systems, community-based organizations (CBOs), social service agencies, and more. They envision a statewide, data-integrated, case referral management platform with closed loop referral capabilities. 

The Programmatic Core has focused on community collaboration with multi-sector partnership. They cite the capacity building of community organizations as an essential part of this work. Likewise, they identify poor communication and working in silos as challenges to addressing SDOH in SC. Finally, the Programmatic Core endorses finding sustainable funding sources, such as payment arrangements between hospitals and CBOs. 

The Administrative Core’s effort has concentrated on financing mechanisms to support SDOH work. These mechanisms include braiding/blending funding from various sources such as operational funds, managed care organization (MCO) funds, grants, and government funding. This Core has examined funding sources that were common in other states, and researched models such as value-based payment models, the Alternative Payment Models Framework and more. 

Phase 4 – The Future

As the Cores continue their work, “the Roadmap” now looks to broaden its reach through this website and establishment of a social media presence. While many public health professionals have participated in the effort to date, the goal is to bring an ever-growing number of participants into communication. An effectively communicating network of government officials, nonprofits, community-based organizations, and medical systems will be an integral piece of solving the SDOH puzzle.