WILTON — Fen Fowler can’t talk about health care without talking about the cycle of poverty. And weatherization. And wood pellet stoves.

“Weatherization is about health, though,” he said. “You wouldn’t think of weatherization as being about health, but it is. It’s important to live in a healthy environment.”

Fowler, who received the annual Community Health Leadership Award recently from the Franklin Community Health Network, said he is honored to be recognized in the field in which he has worked under the philosophy that access to health care can’t be separated from other social factors, particularly among those who live on the edge of financial stability.

When Franklin Community Health Network leadership was considering who should receive the award, Fowler’s name came up immediately because of his long history as a community advocate who looked to meet the needs of the community, according to CEO Rebecca Arsenault.

Fowler, 63, of Farmington, is the executive director of Western Maine Community Action, a group founded to fight poverty by attacking its roots. The Aroostook County native’s work with the organization started 39 years ago as a summer job while he was at the University of Maine at Farmington. He grew into leadership not only with the group, but also in a role on the boards of groups such as Western Maine Alliance, Maine Jobs Council and the Rural Institute on Poverty.

Community action groups were created as part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. It was a part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.

The Office of Economic Opportunity at first was an independent agency, but it was absorbed into the Department of Health and Human Services during the Reagan administration. Decades later, Fowler is still using its approach to fight poverty in rural areas of Maine.

Most recently, Fowler led the effort to sign residents up for the Affordable Care Act, which caught the health network’s attention, Arsenault said.