GPT’s 2025/2026 PUUSH Initiative: Advancing Health Equity Through Neighborhood Innovation Zones (NIZs)
Grow Partnership Tennessee (GPT) is launching a transformative Health Equity-Driven Neighborhood Innovation Zones (NIZs) Framework under its 2025/2026 PUUSH initiative. This initiative integrates culturally competent health education with innovative business training, empowering individuals to establish and sustain health-focused businesses. By combining community wellness with economic development, NIZs will serve as vital hubs for addressing health disparities while fostering entrepreneurship in underserved urban areas.
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As part of this vision, GPT is evaluating the potential for a regional network of health-related NIZs across South-Central Appalachia, designed to support small health-focused businesses in low-income neighborhoods. These NIZs will operate in collaboration with business incubators, development centers, and local entrepreneurs, ensuring that aspiring health-sector professionals receive the training, mentorship, and funding needed to navigate the economic landscape successfully.
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Neighborhood Innovation Zones (NIZs) in Action
NIZs will serve as community-driven incubators that connect health-focused entrepreneurs with essential resources such as:
✔ Business Development Support – Access to funding, mentorship, and technical assistance for launching health-related enterprises.
✔ Workforce Training & Certification – Community Health Worker (CHW) programs and culturally competent healthcare workforce development.
✔ Neighborhood Revitalization & Public Health Initiatives – Creating safer, healthier spaces through projects like the MLK Healthy Corridor, which promotes accessible green spaces for walking, biking, and exercising in the Downtown East at Five Points area.
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A Lifecycle Approach to Smart Growth & Wellness Economics
GPT’s NIZ framework is designed to build and sustain health-focused, smart-growth communities through a lifecycle approach that ensures long-term success:
🔹 Ideation: Community-driven visioning and strategic planning.
🔹 Planning: Developing a roadmap for integrating health and economic growth.
🔹 Launch: Piloting wellness-focused businesses and economic models.
🔹 Growth: Scaling successful initiatives across multiple neighborhoods.
🔹 Profitability: Achieving long-term sustainability through wellness-driven economics.
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Next Steps: PUUSH Initiative & MLK Healthy Corridor Project
Over the next 18 to 24 months, GPT will focus on implementing the MLK Healthy Corridor Project in East Knoxville, establishing a community health hub, and identifying a pilot site for a Neighborhood Innovation Zone (NIZ). This pilot NIZ will serve as a model for future zones, demonstrating how health equity and economic development can be interwoven to create stronger, healthier, and more self-sufficient communities.
Martin Luther King Jr. Ave Healthy Corridor
Supporting projects like the MLK Healthy Corridor for safer, more accessible neighborhoods.
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Health Equity-Driven Incubator Framework
This program aligns directly with GPT’s goals of reducing health disparities by enhancing healthcare providers’ ability to serve minority and underserved populations effectively.
A community infrastructure focused on health can lower healthcare costs, reduce chronic diseases, and decrease violence. By integrating health programs and wellness-driven economic initiatives, underserved communities benefit from improved well-being and resilience.
Click the link below full-length version of this interview: Full-length version:
Grow Partnership Tennessee Martin Luther King Healthy Corridor
Grow Partnership Tennessee's Community Strategic Planning Meeting
