Present:

Michael Coughlin, Steve Medeiros, Sue Sterrett, Kay Dutille, Julie Miller, BJ Valente, Joan Garcarski, Maureen Ryan Estes, Susan Lown and Karen Statser.

A meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community was held on Friday, October 8, 2004 at the Fall River School Department Administration South Building. BJ Valente called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM.

Minutes

The minutes of the September 10, 2004 Steering Committee were circulated in advance.

VOTED to approve the Minutes of the September 10, 2004 meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community as circulated.

Financial Report

VOTED to approve the Financial Report

All work groups should submit budgets for this fiscal year at the next meeting for approval. The legislative breakfast will have a separate line item on the next report.


REPORT OF WORK GROUPS

Access to Health Care

The group is currently working on their budget for the upcoming year. The survey’s are being implemented and will soon be scanned. There was a group at Healthfirst who received a Blue Cross grant to do a study with minorities and health issues. There are members of the Steering Committee who participated in that group and will forward the results of the study to the Access group.

Healthy Lifestyles

Lifestyles will meet next week. Carlos Pavao has a new position and he will no longer continue with the committee. He will be replaced by Ann Cinquini. The group is working on their budget and will be turning it in soon.

Healthy Youth

There was a nice turnout at the last meeting. Discussed future goals. This year’s focus may be on teen pregnancy, as all funding and education for this has virtually been eliminated. We can dovetail with the city grant on drugs and addiction prevention. The budget for the upcoming year is being finalized, but it will be similar to previous years with the bulk going to the poster contest.

Health City Initiative

The newsletter has been finished. It will be distributed with the Council on Aging Newsletter to keep costs down. We are in the planning stages of an event for next year. This will probably be a convention with a panel discussion possibly in early spring. We need to get together and decide if this should be an evening or afternoon event. The Center For Healthy Communities will begin its first in a series of trainings for HCI action plan participants on October 13th at Government Center. There will be trainings in November, January, February and March. We will look opening these trainings beyond plan participants in the future. The 2nd year proposal for the Harvard Pilgrim grant is being prepared. We are hoping for funding for three years.

Legislative Breakfast

The nomination forms came a little bit late, and we will be going through them later on today. It has been suggested that we also give a regional business award and all decided that this would be a good idea. Everything else is in place. Response has been on the low side, so we will send an email out in the next day or so.

Announcements

HELPP Seminars are on Tuesday nights through November. This is targeting neighborhood activists and other key community members and religious groups. There are still openings. Contact Maureen or Christian. There will be reporter from the Herald News at each session to do a summary for the paper. Some professionals will be attending, but this is geared toward the community. There will be a training at SSTAR on 10/26 from 3:00 – 5:00 for professionals.

Tickets are still available for Bernie Siegal on 10/28. Contact Health First for tickets.

Family Service Association will be having its Family Festival on November 20th at Henry Lord Middle School from 12:00 – 3:00. This is free fun filled day for families.

On October 23rd from 1:00 – 3:00 there will be a fall festival at Maplewood Park. There will be free activities for kids, a country store, etc. Proceeds will benefit the Maplewood Neighborhood Association On November 15th there will be a community supper at the Niagara Senior Center along with a food basket raffle.

Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 10:00. Our next meeting is Friday, November 12, 2004.
 

minutes 9-10-04

minutes 8-13-04

minutes 5-14-04

minutes 4-9-04

minutes 3-12-04.html

minutes 2-13-04.html