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Minutes for the Meeting of December 14, 2007

Present:

BJ Valente	Fran Fuller
Mike Coughlin	Sue Sterrett
David Weed	Pat Fanning
Marcia Picard	Marie Chase

A meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community was held on Friday, December 14, 2007 at the Jackson Conference Room at Charlton Hospital in Fall River. Chairperson BJ Valente called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM.

Minutes

The minutes of the December 14, 2007 Steering Committee were circulated in advance.

VOTED to approve the Minutes of the December 14, 2007 meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community as circulated.

Financial Report

Financial Report was circulated at the meeting.

Still waiting for some reimbursement from New Bedford CHNA for Breakfast expenses. Expecting to have some minor cost to each CHNA for the breakfast. More compliments on how well the breakfast went.

MRC funds of $344.22. Mike Coughlin approved that this be a donation to Partners to cover administrative expenses. Accepted by the members present.

VOTED to approve Financial Report through December 14, 2007. (attached)

Report of Work Groups

Access to Health Care And Healthy Lifestyles

Sue Sterrett reported for both work groups as they will be working together on a couple of projects.

Planning to do something on the Healthy City web site around 6 lifestyle issues concerning Fall River. Perhaps a “drop down” menu with the 6 topics – by picking one the person would see local information on the topic such as recommendations and local resources.

2 other projects –

Build a packet for new teens moving into the Fall River Area. Would possibly tie in with the School Departments, so when the teen registers they would receive “newcomer” information.
Relationship Violence – resources on how to handle this negative situation this was brought up by one of the members of the group and will be researched more possibly to team up with the Domestic Violence Coalition .

David Weed mentioned how nice it would be to develop a video on Fall River area resources/recreation opportunities for newcomers. Written material is becoming less attractive in this day and age. We are more likely to view a video than read.

Healthy Youth

Jamison Souza not at meeting. BJ spoke on some topics…

Red Wagon presentation was done very well. She heard very positive comments from 2 award recipients.

There has been big youth turnout for meetings and hopes that this continues in the new year.

There was a presentation done with many youth leaders from different groups by the Juvenile Justice Dept. at Suffolk Law School narrowing in on how the help avoid unnecessary arrests. It has been proven that people of color are treated more negatively when there is suspicion of the law being broken. Future training is being offered as well on how to suppress anger, which usually leads to arrest in these situations.

Healthy City Initiative

Lots of grants ! Lots of planning to do ! Will start to hear by February/March 2008.

Several are for 5-year projects. New Mayor and new staff coming in will decide the direction of some of these grants if awarded.

Some topics of grant applications:

Weed & Seed

Violence Prevention

Wellness

Alcohol Issues

Youth – YMCA and summer camp curriculum

Tobacco – 2 grants around education of youth

Nutrition

Aging and Fitness

Tobacco – regional grants. Trend towards regional involvement – up to 7 communities would be administered out of the Fall River Government Center office.

At this point Sue Sterrett commented on how nice it would be to have an Organization Chart defining and explaining Partners, Healthy Cities and HHS and how they are connected. It would be a great way to start of any grant application so that the “grantee” would have a better idea of how all the groups are related. It would be a good visual aid. Jane DiBiasio is going to try to assemble one. Mike C has one complete for his department with the City of Fall River and David W will also draft one up on PowerPoint. It was decided that multiple charts would be needed to capture all the information. However, comments were made on how this is a never-ending task due to constant change.

March 19, 2008 - Save the Date for attendance at keynote speaker at lunch time. Ongoing work on a conference for this date “Promoting Practitioner Prevention Concept”. The focus is to provide practitioners with more health-involved resources to connect their patients with. Plans are to have a morning seminar and an afternoon seminar.

‘Walk to School’ will be revived in April 2008.

January 9 – launch date - Fitness Challenge for Adults

The key is in participation. Looking for 500+ adults to join. Will be giving out prizes for participation.

Press conference on January 6^th program begins on January 12^th. Looking for individuals and teams from the area.

Save the Date - April 30 – is the date for the Spring Awards 5 – 7 PM. Commissioner Auerbach will attend – location TBA.

Chamber of Commerce Membership drive now going on. At November Partners meeting BJ asked for more information to see if it would be worth joining. David brought a lot of information on the benefits of being a member. More information is available at their web site: www.FallRiverChamber.com. The membership cost is $270.00 per year and it was voted to join for 1 year and then assess what the benefits were and decide whether to stay on as members.

BJ offered to the group 2 requests for support letters:

Partners offered past support to UMass Dartmouth College of Nursing. They were awarded the grant. Now they ask for support to keep the funds and services in Bristol County. It was motioned and passed to send a letter of support.

Shepard Center - This is a faith-based program for seniors based out of Washington DC. Their mission is to recruit volunteers for their “Time and Transportation”. Seniors are paired up one-on-one with other seniors to bring them to all their weekly appointments, etc. This builds a relationship between the two people. It was motioned and passed to send a letter of support.

Announcements:

APHA (American Public Health Association) circulates a 30-page newsletter. Healthy Cities Fall River will be highlighted in their December/January bulletin. When available there will be a link through Partners web site to read the article.

Marcia Picard announced her retirement from the Girl Scouts as of December 20. She would like to stay on with the Partners Group as a private citizen volunteer. Everyone welcomed her in her new retired status. Mike C went on to thank her for her professionalism and support she has unselfishly given for many years. BJ also spoke to how she so efficiently took over the finances.

Congratulations Marcia!

Meeting Adjourned at 10:00 am

Next Meeting – January 11, 2008

Southcoast Hospitals – Charlton Site

Jackson Conference Room

Links to Minutes of Previous Meetings