Partners for a Healthier Community


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Minutes for the Meeting of April 8, 2005

Present:

Marlene Cantor, Maria Evora-Rosa, Bea Medeiros, Michael Coughlin, Pat Fanning, Julie Miller, Judith Coykendall, Frances Fuller, Marcia Picard, Katy Dutille, Joan Gancarski, Karen Scott-Statser, Maureen Estes, Dr. Stewart Kirkaldy, BJ Valente, and David Weed

A meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community was held on Friday, April 8, 2005 at the Southcoast Hospital – Charlton Site. Chairperson David Weed called the meeting to order at 8:35AM.

Minutes

The minutes of the April 8, 2005 Steering Committee were circulated in advance.

VOTED to approve the Minutes of the April 8, 2005 meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community as circulated.

Financial Report

VOTED to approve the financial report as presented.

REPORT OF WORK GROUPS

Access to Health Care

The group is trying to make contact with Paul Martin to wrap up the video. Work on the accompanying brochure and distribution will begin ASAP. The Healthcare Survey was given out at City Hall and there was a good response. Family Service will be scanning the surveys shortly. The survey will also be done at HMI and a local Khmer AA group. This should be done by the end of June.

Healthy Lifestyles

The cardiac follow up with Durfee High juniors was not as successful as hopped. This will be tried again with some incentives for students. The vending machine survey is complete and we will have results soon. This info will be presented to the school committee and hopefully a change can be made over the summer. The cardiac survey has been completed for Charlton patients. The group is still working on St. Anne’s patients, as this is a much more tedious process. The data should be available soon. Thanks to all for making “Ready Set Quit” a success. There are still kits left. For those who have been denied due to health reasons, they may call and speak to the director for additional guidance.

Healthy Youth

Planning is underway for the poster contest. We believe it will be held at CD-REC on Bank St. on Friday, June 10th. The theme is “What I like about my neighborhood.” We already have several groups signed up to participate. As in the past, Partners will meet from 8:30 to 9:30 and the poster contest will follow. The date for the Mayor’s Youth Conference has changed. New date TBA. The group is assisting the Fall River School Department in applying for the Safe and Drug Free Schools grant. This is a $3,000,000 grant that will allow the school system to expand and enhance some of its existing programs.

Health City Initiative

The spring even was very well attended and enjoyed by all. In the next year, the goal is to add on 50 more partners with particular emphasis on adding small businesses. We will also be looking at many indicators to see how these programs contribute to the health of the city. Met with the policy director at UMASS to discuss the SIGNALS report. This report assesses water, air, education, and other health aspects. We are trying to get a baseline number of programs doing health education, etc. This data will be compiled and put in a very simplified format.

Annual Meeting

Discussed plans for the annual meeting in the fall. Reminder to all to keep nominations in mind throughout the summer. Some suggestions for speakers were given.

Announcements

Some may be receiving a survey via e-mail from DPH. Please take a moment to respond.

Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 9:45. Our next meeting is Friday May 13, 2005