Next HEAT meeting is March 16

The next regular HEAT meeting will take place Tuesday, March 16, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., at the Leroy Collins Public Library (200 W. Park Avenue) in downtown Tallahassee. We will discuss the town hall meeting we are planning to wrap up Unnatural Causes events in April and get reports on the food environment and HEAT-BP projects. If there are other items you’d like to add to the agenda, please contact Lance Gravlee. We hope to see you there!

Hold the date: Health Summit 2010

Mark your calendars for April 3, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., to attend Health Summit 2010, sponsored by the Leon County Health Department. The Summit, which marks the beginning of Minority Health Month, will take place at the South Side location of the Leon County Health Department (872 West Orange Avenue). For more information, please contact the LCHD Office of Minority Health (850-606-8110).

New CD-ROM on Community-Based Participatory Research

HEAT is among a growing number of community-academic partnerships that have embraced community-based participatory research (CBPR) as an approach to explain and eliminate social inequalities in health. Some leading proponents of this approach have now released an instructional course—available on CD-ROM or as a downloadable file—to help people get started with this approach.

The course is titled “Community-Based Participatory Research: A Partnership Approach for Public Health.” The primary instructors are Barbara Israel, Chris Coombe, and Robert McGranaghan from the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center (where, incidentally, I did my postdoctoral training in CBPR). As the instructors describe it, the training includes five parts:

• Rationale, definition, and core principles
• Strategies for forming, maintaining, sustaining, and evaluating CBPR partnerships
• Qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and interpretation
• Dissemination and translation of research findings
• Benefits, challenges, and recommendations for using CBPR for research and social change

To receive a free copy (if sent within the United States and U.S. Territories) of the CD-ROM, or to access the downloadable version, please register at: www.cbpr-training.org. Information about availability of continuing education credits can also be found on the website. You may also register by phone by calling the Michigan Public Health Training Center at 734.615.9439 (Course code: CBPRR0909).

Next HEAT meeting is Feb. 16

The next HEAT meeting will take place Tuesday, Feb. 16, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., at the FAMU School of Allied Health Sciences Conference Room 103. We are grateful to FAMU for offering to host this meeting. A key goal for our February meeting will be to reflect on events we organized around the local re-broadcast of Unnatural Causes in January and to discuss our next steps for building on these events. We will also discuss new funding opportunities for community capacity building, improvements to the website, and other strategies for continued development of the partnership. Please join us!

Day of Dialogue on Minority Health IV

This Saturday, February 13, Bethel AME Church in Tallahassee will host the fourth annual Day of Dialogue on Minority Health. This year’s theme is “Stressors, Strains & Health: Connecting the Dots to Help.” Co-Chairperson, Dr. Penny Ralston, describes the theme this way: “The program this year focuses on the effect of so many strains on our families that we are now seeing in our congregations. These strains affect our physical, mental and spiritual health. Our purpose is to help church health leaders to identify stressors and strains and to find solutions, especially community resources available to help us.”

Dr. Ralston and Co-Chairperson Dr. Elsie Crowell have put together an excellent program. Featured speakers include Rev. Mary W. Robinson, Rev. Stanley L. Walker, Elder Franklin Rush, Dr. Temple Robinson, Dr. Cyneetha Strong, and Dr. Jackie Robinson.

Please join us for a Day of Dialogue at Bethel AME Church (501 West Orange Avenue) this Saturday, February 13, 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.