ReInvent Healthy was first born when our founder Angie was chatting with her boyfriend in 2018. He asked what she would do if she won the lottery. Before she had time to think, her mouth said "Start a foundation!" That was it. By the time her mind caught up with her mouth, she realized that a foundation could be a fun and productive way to respond to frustrations she had heard or experienced for years:
- Creative nonprofit leaders and passionate individuals had unusual ideas for promoting health but little funding was available for projects that hadn't already been shown to work. There was a need for support that allowed community groups to do their own version of research and development.
- Health was often being defined by test results, diseases, how many medicines someone took, life expectancy, and numbers like body mass index. These definitions made sense to her in some ways, but they did not capture how people wanted to feel in their bodies, minds, and emotions. There was a need to understand what communities wanted for their health.
As she began learning about foundations (she knew very little!), she realized what could be created in response to the needs she had seen. ReInvent Healthy was born the same year.
In 2023, our foundation evolved into a new version of itself. Wendy and Evelyn became the new leaders and we are reinventing our story with a continued focus on the health of communities.
