Celebrating

Margaret Stephens

Earlier this month, LiveWell Greenville staff and partners bid farewell to Margaret Stephens. Margaret first joined the LiveWell staff in 2011 as the agency's Community Health Consultant and then later served as the Faith and Neighborhood Relations Director until her retirement on June 16. Margaret had a true passion for ensuring that Greenville's faith-based organizations were included in LiveWell's work.  

Margaret's co-workers describe her as a blessing, mentor, warm spirit, friend, and shining light. For LiveWell Executive Director Sally Wills, Margaret has been the heart and soul of LiveWell Greenville for the past 12 years. According to Sally, "Margaret's impact will continue to ripple through our local congregations for years to come."  

LiveWell will celebrate Margaret's work and legacy on Tuesday, July 11 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. If you would like to join us in sending Margaret off to her well-earned retirement in style, please RSVP using the link below. 

Partner Spotlight:

Florentina Camhi, Prisma Health System

Since early 2022, LiveWell has partnered with Prisma Health to support a Pediatric Food Resource Navigator position through the Bradshaw Institute for Community Child Health and Advocacy. The Pediatric Food Resource Navigator, Florentina Camhi, is responsible for connecting families experiencing food insecurity with food resources. This partnership was made possible with funding from the Jolley Foundation, and in just over one year, the navigator has actively connected 292 families with both food and other resources. LiveWell also secured funding from the USDA to develop a produce prescription program in partnership with Mill Village Ministry's FoodShare program, which offers fresh produce boxes to families in need. 

Florentina moved to the Upstate from California a little over a year ago. She has 25+ years of experience in social work, particularly in the fields of public health and child protective services. Florentina is passionate about making communities livable and sustainable, as well as about connecting those who lack resources with healthy food. Florentina is bilingual, which allows her to communicate with many of the families referred to her for assistance. 

While Florentina's official job is to connect families with food resources, she also takes the time to listen to each family's story and to try to help address other needs they have, as well. Her favorite part of this important role is the conversations she has with families who often open up to her with their stories and struggles because they can sense that she truly cares about their well-being.  

"The partnership between Prisma and the Bradshaw Institute, LiveWell, and Mill Village is something I have never experienced in my 25 years of working," Florentina says. "There is amazing power in the group of people working together from these agencies."  

Huge thanks to Florentina for her contribution to LiveWell's work in our community and to our partners in this program! 

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Park Hop

Did you know that there are more than 105,000 local parks in the United States? This number includes small neighborhood parks, recreation complexes, protected nature preserves, and state parks. Unfortunately, a good many of these parks are underutilized. 

Since 2013, LiveWell Greenville has worked with various municipalities and organizations in the Upstate to create an initiative aimed at increasing awareness about parks and the many active living opportunities that exist in parks. Through these efforts, Park Hop was born! 

Park Hop is a free, summer-long scavenger hunt in parks across the Upstate. The program encourages individuals and families to explore that year’s featured parks while using clues to answer questions within each park. The more parks that someone explores, the more prizes they can earn. Participants can complete the scavenger hunts using the Park Hop app, and all Park Hop information is available in Spanish. 

In the program’s inaugural year in 2013, 217 children participated. By 2019, the number of participants had increased to 1041. From 2013-2022, Park Hop totaled 7602 program registrations and 110,285 park visits. 

LiveWell is a collective impact agency that seeks to build and strengthen community partnerships in an effort to maximize community resources and drive program success. The Park Hop program and the ongoing collaboration between LiveWell and the parks and recreation agencies involved in this effort are a shining example of what can happen when different agencies work together to create a better, healthier community for all. 

If you are just learning about this Park Hop, it’s not too late to participate this summer! Download the mobile app to register and access the scavenger hunt clues, or visit parkhop.org for more information. 

Coming Soon: Website Updates

Within the next few weeks, the LiveWell website will undergo some important changes. We hope you will check out our updates once they are finished.

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