The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the YMCA of the USA have been working with local leaders and stakeholders to build healthy communities and implementing policy, systems, and environmental change strategies that focus on physical activity, nutrition, tobacco cessation, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, obesity and arthritis. Ten members of the Southcoast ACHIEVE program team, based at the YMCA Southcoast and working to develop specific activities in the Southcoast, attended a training organized by the CDC in Alexandria, VA,  from July 13th to 16th, 2009. New Bedford YMCA director Nancy Bonell and Southcoast Hospital cardiovascular risk program coordinator Donna Querim are coordinating the team's efforts. Click here to see photos of an earlier planning session. Click here for the Standard-Times article. For further information about the project, contact Nancy Bonell at 508-996-9622 X 25.
 

(Top row, left) Healthy City Fall River coordinator David Weed, New Bedford senior planner Raymond Khalife, public health director Marianne DeSouza, YMCA Southcoast CEO Gary Schuyler, Southcoast Hospital cardiac prevention director Donna Querim, SE Mass Hunger Commission program director William Shell, Immigrant Assistance Center executive director Helena Marques and YMCA Southcoast COO Nancy Bonell meet at Green Airport prior to their flight to Alexandria. (Top row, center) National walking and bike-ability consultant Mark Fenton leads a group on a walking tour of Alexandria to teach principles of increasing access for pedestrians. (Top row, right) Gary Schuyler and Massachusetts State Representative John Quinn participate in the action planning discussion.. (Middle row, left) CDC's Healthy Communities program director Dr. Alyssa Easton welcomes over 200 representatives from the eastern portion of the U.S. to the conference. (Middle row, center) Ms. DeSouza offers a suggestion to Donna Querim, Nancy Bonell, Southcoast Hospital marketing and community relations director Kerry Mello, and Helena Marques during one of the planning sessions. Monte Roulier, president of Community Initiatives, outlines some of the tasks of the Institute. (Bottom row, left) Marianne DeSouza, Ray Khalife, Gary Schuyler and Donna Querim respond to Mark Fenton during his presentation. (Bottom row, center) Mr. Fenton asks Donna Querim about her earliest recollections of play as a child. (Bottom row, right) Dave Weed offers a suggestion on how to integrate the Healthy City Fall River initiative into the overall action plan for the Southcoast region.