A new coalition is putting its heart — and Soulsville — into health this month. 

On Friday, Aug. 9, and Saturday, Aug. 10, community health experts will convene at the Stax Museum for a special two-day heart health summit. 

“Soulsville is excited about the heart health summit taking place on our campus,” said Pat Mitchell Worley, CEO of the Soulsville Foundation. 

UTHSC opening health center in Soulsville

“We’re known not just as the former home of Stax Records, but also for the sense of place and community it created all those years ago,” she said. “Today we continue that legacy of community. And health — whether physical, mental or overall social wellbeing — is vital to quality of life.” 

The Soulsville Foundation has partnered with the Tennessee Heart Health Network to host the summit at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, located on the Soulsville campus. 

The network is a statewide initiative to improve primary care for all Tennesseans. Launched in 2021, it’s led by the Tennessee Population Health Consortium, a research center at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center that focuses on primary and preventative care. 

Last fall, the Tennessee Heart Health Network received a $6 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help improve heart health across the state over the next five years. The work involves partnering with community health centers in the 40 Tennessee census tracts where more than half of adults have been diagnosed with hypertension. 

Tennessee ranks third nationally among states with the highest rates of heart attacks, and hypertension is one of the most potent risk factors for heart disease. 

“We’re focused on neighborhoods with especially high rates of high blood pressure and heart disease and (we’re) working with primary care providers in those census tracts in Memphis, Chattanooga, Jackson and Knoxville that are at highest need,” said Dr. Jim Bailey, Tennessee Heart Health Network’s principal investigator. 

Bailey is also the executive director of the Tennessee Population Health Consortium, and a professor of preventive medicine and Robert S. Pearce Endowed Chair in internal medicine at UTHSC College of Medicine. 

He’s focused on employing evidence-based approaches to address social determinants contributing to poor heart health outcomes and disparities in high-poverty neighborhoods such as Soulsville. That involves increasing residents’ access to health care and tools to support their journeys to wellness. 

“We’re engaging residents in telling us how to do it better, asking about their most important needs, and recognizing the assets in the community that we can draw on to connect people with their most fundamental needs,” Bailey said. 

This fall, UTHSC will open a health hub in the neighborhood in partnership with the Soulsville Foundation and the Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation. UTHSC Health Hub: Soulsville will offer pediatric and adult primary care, health coaching and mental health counseling, and will serve three local schools by providing school nurses and youth intervention specialists. 

UTHSC Health Hub: Soulsville will open Tuesday, Sept. 3, in a temporary space at 1122 College St. on the Soulsville campus. 

RKA Construction is renovating the clinic’s permanent home at 870 E. McLemore Ave., which is located a block from the Stax Museum and Soulsville Foundation. It’s expected to be ready in early 2025. 

UTHSC has employed the hub model in other neighborhoods. The UTHSC Health Hub in Uptown opened at 534 N. Second St. in 2021, and the ShelbyCares on 3rd facility opened in 2023 at 3358 S. Third St. in Westwood. 

“It’s a beautiful and really revolutionary sort of clinic that really puts prevention first in a new way,” Bailey said. 

Hub patients are screened for obesity, hypertension, diabetes and social needs. Services include tobacco cessation and individual and group health coaching for diabetes prevention and self-management. 

Early results for health coaching participants have shown a significant average decrease in BMI, weight and blood pressure. Soulsville’s new health hub will follow the same community approach.

With the health hub opening on the horizon and heart health on his mind, Bailey wanted to host the Tennessee Heart Health Network’s first summit in Soulsville. The two-day event will unite primary care and community health experts from UTHSC, Christ Community Health, Regional One Health, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and more.

“We’re bringing together members who are interested in working together to address key risk factors for heart attack and stroke,” Bailey said. “We’ll be developing some working groups around campaigns, and we have a big focus on food as medicine, and ways we can connect with food distribution systems to increase access to healthy foods.” 

On Friday, Aug. 9, Mitchell Worley and Memphis Mayor Paul Young will kick off the event at the Stax Museum with welcoming remarks. Speakers that day include: 

• Jamila Smith-Young, nurse practitioner at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and UTHSC College of Nursing assistant professor, who will discuss diabetes. 
• Marlon Foster, executive director of Knowledge Quest, who will discuss social needs in the community. 
• Pedro Velasquez, executive director of LifeDoc Health, who will discuss using data to provide equitable care. 

Velasquez said LifeDoc Health focuses on providing Memphians with access to quality health care, but that’s only one factor in enhancing community wellness. 

“Data has shown the care a person receives only impacts 15% of their overall health,” he said. “Twenty-five percent is determined by non-modifiable factors, such as genetics, and the remaining 60% is determined by their environment and lifestyle.” 

Velasquez said his nonprofit is invested in more deeply understanding the needs and challenges of the communities it serves. 

“Summits like this provide a great opportunity for people and organizations with shared passion for community development to learn more about each other and hopefully identify paths for people to work together,” he said. 

On Sunday, the summit will host a community panel and community engagement session, which will coincide with Stax Museum’s Back to School Family Day. The event will feature live music, food trucks, games, sports physicals, back-to-school vaccinations and health hub screenings. 

Bailey hopes the summit will lay the foundation for future Tennessee Heart Health Network summits as it broadens its impact across the state. 

“For each of our annual conferences over the next five years, we are planning to be in a different one of our targeted urban areas across the state, but we’re starting it all right here, with Memphis,” he said. 

Additional details and registration information are available at tnhearthealth.org.