Present: Doug Cosby, Steve Medeiros, BJ Valente,, Michael Coughlin, Marcia Picard, David Weed,, Katy Dutille, Gladys Rosofsky, Denise Wright, Pat Fanning and Karen Scott Statser

A meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community was held on Friday, August 13, 2004 at Southcoast Hospital – Charlton Site Chairperson David Weed called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM.

Minutes

The minutes of the June 11, 2004 Steering Committee were circulated in advance.

VOTED to approve the Minutes of the June 11, 2004 meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community as circulated.

Financial Report


VOTED to approve the Financial Report

If you have any outstanding invoices, get them in ASAP. We will be discussing budgets for workgroups at our September meeting, and we need a clear picture of where each group stands.


REPORT OF WORK GROUPS


Access to Health Care

The group will begin handing out the access surveys on September 17th at the two local Salvation Army locations. Participants will be given Dunkin Donuts gift certificates. Balloons, pens, pencils, etc. will be provided to children. Someone will also be conducting the survey at the Khmer Center. Once completed, the surveys will be scanned and the data gathered. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 25th at Health First. The meeting time has been changed to 9:00 to better accommodate schedules. Paula Harrison is the new chairperson who will be assisted by Diane Colletti.

Healthy Lifestyles

Carlos Pavao is in the processing changing jobs and we are not sure if he will continue his involvement with the group. The group is working on school nutrition, with a survey and info for parents in regards to healthy snack choices. The group will also start its vending machine survey soon.

Healthy Youth

There will be a mini-meeting in conjunction with the City to discuss the Heroin grant. In September, Healthy Youth will begin to set goals for the upcoming year. If we receive the school department grant that Sue Sterrett has recently submitted, there will be many changes. The grant was designed to enhance and expand current programs and services. It is possible that money will be returned to many services that have discontinued. We will here more about the grant in September.

Health City Initiative

The City of Fall River has received the Heroin prevention grant at the full requested amount of $80,000. This was derived from the Healthy City Initiative. There will be four components of the grant; 1. stepped up law enforcement; 2. communication to the community; 3. Education (via the citizen’s academy at the FRPD); 4. collaboration with the Mayor’s office. The downside is that heroin use in the city is among the highest in the Southeast. The Healthy City Initiative plan has been completed and will be released shortly. There will be a press conference soon, and a newsletter released thereafter. The group will be asking help from all local agencies for help in distributing this newsletter to keep the cost of mailings down. The micro grants have been awarded and projects are underway.


Legislative Breakfast

The breakfast will be held on Friday, October 22nd at 8:00. The guest speaker will be Judge Jose Perez from Worcester. Award nomination forms will be going out shortly. As we did last year, groups will be able to rent a resource table. More information will be presented at next month’s meeting, and a mailing will be going out shortly.

Announcements

There will be a group of Healthy City Initiative groups that will be meeting monthly.

Health First is having a fundraiser on October 28th. The topic is “Prescription for Living” presented by Bernie Seigel. Tickets are $20.00 and CEU’s are available. Steve Medeiros will be selling tickets during the next two months.

Steppingstone’s “Get Stepping” walk is coming up in two weeks. Organizations can register in advance, or on the day of the walk.

Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 10:00. Our next meeting is Friday, September 10, 2004.
 

minutes 5-14-04

minutes 4-9-04

minutes 3-12-04.html

minutes 2-13-04.html