SPRINGFIELD — Civic organizations, business leaders and ordinary citizens from the city’s North End community convened today at the Germán Gerena Community School to begin the process of revitalizing the neighborhood’s health.

Determined to make the North End a more vibrant and healthy community, attendees presented ideas for new projects to address health challenges like asthma, diabetes, obesity and HIV from the ground up. Baystate Health, a longtime North End neighbor, is supporting the revitalization not only with its medical expertise but, even more importantly, with $2.8 million in grant support for public-health priorities in the form of a new Community Initiatives Fund. Baystate Health is required to provide the funding as a condition of Massachusetts Department of Public Health approval—given in November 2007—for its Hospital of the Future project at Baystate Medical Center.

“It only takes one person to have a vision, it takes a community to implement it,” said Robert Bailey, executive director of the Spanish-American Union, one of the North End’s principal civic groups. “Even though this is only the beginning of a long road, it’s a very strong beginning, and we’re hopeful about these projects’ potential to bring better health to our community.”

The new grants, supported by Baystate Health, will come in disbursements from $500 to $20,000 and are intended to give the citizens of the North End maximum ownership over the initiatives they will conceive, plan and execute to better their neighborhood’s health. Baystate is providing $9.6 million in overall community-benefits ‘Factor 9’ funding attached to the Hospital of the Future project and directed at improving public health in several Springfield neighborhoods.

“Our mission is to improve the health of the people in our communities every day with quality and compassion,” said Steven F. Bradley, vice president of government and community relations for Baystate Health. “We’re looking at public health statistics and demographics, identifying and finding the health disparities in the city, then working collaboratively with community-based organizations to identify the top priorities.”

Other participating organizations at today’s event included the North End Campus Coalition and the New North Citizens Council. “It’s a very strong team we’ve gathered here with our partner organizations, local businesses and the expertise and financial support of Baystate Health,” said Bailey. “Now it’s time to walk the walk, and help people here get healthier so our community will be healthier.”