- Informal community collaborative from 1996-1999
- Non-profit formed in 1999
- Founding board members: Superintendent of the WS/FCS; CEOs of HD, both hospitals, DSS, and local mental health agency; reps of Board of Health and Board of Education
- Presidents: Pediatrician, neonatologist, chair of local Board of Health; Director of Downtown Health Plaza
- Expansion of board in January 2004 to serve as SHAC
- Medical direction by faculty in WFBH Departments of Pediatrics
- Research direction by faculty in WFBH Department of Psychiatry, then UNCG, and now WFBH Family and Community Medicine
- No direct employees of the SHA; all contracted under business agreements