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Tuesday Closing Keynote It’s About Geography: A Place-Based Community Transformation Effort Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 3:30-4:30 pm – Northland Ballroom Located just miles from “the happiest place on earth,” the community of Bithlo, FL, resembles parts of Appalachia. Bithlo is an isolated, semi-rural area where poverty has been the norm for nearly 80 years. Most of Bithlo’s 8,200 residents live in dilapidated housing; their drinking water is contaminated with heavy metals. Literacy rates are low, jobs are scarce, and social needs abound. There has been no grocery store, barbershop, library, swimming pool, or place to earn GED. United Global Outreach (UGO) is a small 501c3 entity whose goal is to “transform forgotten communities into places in which we would all want to live.” UGO’s role as a community catalyst in Bithlo has garnered the support of nearly 70 community, faith, business, education and government partners, including anchor institution Florida Hospital. The Bithlo Transformation Effort is a unique, building-on-existing-assets model that has received national recognition as a model for “place-based” community improvement. Learning objectives 1. Explain how community infrastructure and “place” are crucial health determinants, and that real change occurs

only at the local level. 2. Describe the unique approach and methodology that have elevated the Bithlo Transformation into a national

best practice model. 3. Illustrate the essential role of “anchor institutions” and public-private partnerships in community transformation.

Timothy J. McKinney, CEO United Global Outreach, Inc. Timothy McKinney is an advocate, collaborator, community-builder and servant leader. In his years as a successful entrepreneur and professional baseball umpire, McKinney underwrote the efforts of many charitable entities. He participated in many humanitarian aid trips to Eastern Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. From 2005 to 2009, he chose to be a full-time caretaker for his 92-year-old chronically ill great-aunt. McKinney said the experience with his aunt – who also had dementia – reminded him that there are people who cannot

defend themselves. It also reinforced his God-given responsibility to give unconditional love and assistance to people who need a helping hand. Since fall 2009, he has lived that belief by taking on a more-than-full-time job that some would call impossible. McKinney leads the Bithlo Transformation Effort – a grassroots effort to undo over 80 years of generational poverty and neglect in a town once known as “The Nightmare before Christmas.” The Bithlo Transformation Effort model is recognized as a national model in community health improvement and population health. United Global Outreach is expanding the transformation model to other Central Florida communities.