Present:

A meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community was held on Friday, May 12, 2006 at SouthCoast Hospitals Group – Charlton Site.  Chairperson David Weed called the meeting to order at 8:30 AM.

Minutes

The minutes of the April 14, 2006 Steering Committee were circulated in advance.

VOTED to approve the Minutes of the April 14, 2006 meeting of Partners for a Healthier Community as circulated.

Financial Report

VOTED to approve Financial Report as of April 2006.

·        Work Group balances were not included on the financial report due to the fact that they are not accurate at this point in time.   BJ Valente will review and report next month.  Each group knows what funds are available.

·        David Weed noted that there is a large account balance that is available for worthy spending.  Healthy Cities will issue micro grants – approximately $5500.00. Mini Grant RFP will be released after the Design Team Meeting on June 1^st.

·        There was a motion to select ad hoc committee members to develop needs assessments for grants in the $5-$10,000 range. 

Those members are:  Marlene Cantor, Sue Sterrett, Lynda Sampson and Maureen Ryan Estes

Report of Work Groups

Access to Health Care

Paula Harrison reports that the winning artist has agreed to allow use of his work as the cover of the brochure.  It will be printed in 4 languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Khmer.  The videos are still available at SSTAR and Health First.  Ser Jobs will make the video part of their student curriculum.

New Project:  Revival of visiting Fall River Soup Kitchens, where the video will be shown, health screenings will be conducted as well as education around illness prevention and treatment.

Much discussion followed after Paula asked everyone for ideas on how to spread the message to as many ethnic groups as possible around the topic of going to area clinics for treatment before their illness gets so out of control that they need to visit hospital emergency rooms.  Part of the problem is that in many countries it is believed that only “good” doctors work in hospitals and inferior doctors work at the clinics.  Obviously not true in this country.

Suggestions made:

·        Immigration centers

·        Fall River Health Department

·        Churches

·        Getting on the agenda for the Mayor’s monthly cable show.  Translators could be recruited for this.

·        Invite leaders of ethnic populations to visit area clinics, then take information back to the community.

·        Invite appropriate staff from South Coast and St. Anne’s marketing departments to help educate.

·        Educate outreach counselors and equip them with useful information to relate to those they visit.

·        The group felt that the most effective would be the radio stations that broadcast in their native languages.  Suggested RFR $ for radio ads.

Healthy Lifestyles

Sue Sterrett reported that members met on May 11.  They were happy that a former member, Carol Constantine, has rejoined the group.

Major project underway working with the U Mass Dartmouth  nutrition program.  Now working with Second Graders;  K-5 next year.  Teachers will have binders containing information on health and nutrition, which will be integrated into lesson planning.

The Nutrition Bill  has stalled.  Sue will Email a number to everyone to call.

A letter will be circulated to the school department, disagreeing with proposed idea of cutting recess in order to spend more time on academics.

Working on developing a newsletter to be sent to student’s families. 

Discussion on ADD… Meds vs. Physical Activity

Studies are showing medication becoming less effective and “hand-eye” coordination and other physical activities becoming more successful in treating ADD. An example of this is “Brain Breaks” in schools helping children to do better academically.

Healthy Youth

BJ Valente briefly announced before leaving for another commitment that the Poster Contest is still going on involving 7 area groups.  Poster Award Contest will be Friday, June 9, 2006 from 10- 11:15 AM following the Partners Meeting from 8:30 – 9:30 AM.  This will be held at the Boys and Girls Club, 803 Bedford Street, Fall River, MA.  Parking available around the corner off Quequechan Street.  Hope you can plan on staying for the awards.

David Weed brought attention to the free videos available in the room to take back if interested.  These videos were discussed at last meeting and have been previously circulated throughout the community.  Topics are still relevant to today’s youth.

Health City Initiative

Next Design Team Meeting is Thursday, June 1 – 8:30 AM @ UMass Dartmouth Extension on South Main Street in Fall River, MA.  There is currently a list of 40+ possible new partners which will be discussed at that meeting.  Will talk with Odete after the meeting.

At last month’s meeting they talked about contacting newspapers in order to sponsor a “HEALTHY CITY FALL RIVER” page that would have Partners information on it, as well as ads from area businesses, etc.   It was decided to work with the “Spirit” publication.  It is a free publication, so it would be a “win-win” situation as the newspaper depends on income from ads for survival and Partners would be getting exposure to the community as well.

This page would be ongoing week to week, as the paper comes out on Wednesdays.

Pat Fanning asked what the distribution was and where it could be found.  Apparently it is all throughout the downtown area, City Hall, Southcoast Hospitals, etc.

There is a meeting next Thursday at 10 AM with Rick from the “Spirit”.

Nominating Committee:

Committee met last week and the process is underway to revisit the By-Law language.  Also, 2 letters have been drafted that will go out next week in regard to nominations.  They worked hard to get a cross section representation from the community.  The only gaps they found were:  Law enforcement, faith, medical field and perhaps more school representation.  Suggestions were to contact Chief Sousa from FRPD and Rev Lawrence and Rev John Hopkins as he is linked to Charlton quite strongly.  Branching out to other towns would be helpful, such as Somerset, Swansea, contacting those police chiefs

They will present the slate at the June meeting.

Announcements:

SSTAR Family Health Center will be opening a clinic at St. Vincent’s Home on Highland Avenue.  They are taking over the primary health care needs of the residents there.

Durfee High School Junior Prom Committee has launched an initiative to use 8 buses to transport students and guests to and from the prom, which will be held in Boston this year.  The cost is not being tacked onto the price of prom tickets so they are looking for donations to help.  Students can only attend the prom if they go on the bus.  Furthermore, they cannot bring any luggage with them, which means that they cannot change clothes or bring food or beverages.  A motion was made and agreed that Partners would donate funds to cover the cost of one bus, which is approximately $700.00. 

Health First is hosting “Family Fun in the Sun” day on May 20 from 10AM – 1 PM.  There will be many activities concentrating on summer safety, cancer awareness, and proper car seat installation with a raffle to win a car seat.  There will be DJ music and a story hour all with a luau theme.

Sue Sterrett is attending a Pandemic Summit at the Holiday Inn in Taunton.

Maureen announced that the City’s Cultural Diversity Celebration was kicked off on May 5 and continues into June, ending with a parade on June 17.  The parade route begins on North Main Street, going up Cherry Street and ending at Ruggles Park.  There will be activities at the park – food, crafts, etc.

In connection with this, a Cultural Diversity Pot Luck Supper is being held on June 1 from 5:30 – 7:30 PM at the First Congregational Church on Rock Street – using the Cherry Street entrance.  This is a “for fun only get together”.  You can call 508-324-2405 for further details.

Next meeting: June 9, 2006, 8:30-9:30 a.m.

NOTE CHANGE IN MEETING LOCATION

Thomas Chew Memorial Boys & Girls Club

803 Bedford Street, Fall River

Poster Contest Award Ceremony to follow

10:00 a.m.

Visit us at www.gfrpartners.com

Links to Minutes of Previous Meetings

minutes 4-14-06

minutes 3-10-06

minutes 2-10-06

minutes 1-13-06

minutes 12-9-05

minutes 11-4-05

minutes 9-9-05

minutes 8-12-05

minutes 6-10-05

minutes 5-13-05

minutes 4-8-05

minutes 3-11-05

minutes 2-11-05

minutes 1-14-05

minutes 12-10-04

minutes 11-12-04

minutes10-8-04

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