Next HEAT meeting is April 21

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 21, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Conference Room A (enter through cafeteria). We will focus on funding proposals to support partnership development and to conduct community engagement workshops on obesity and the food environment. Lasagna dinners will be available from TMH catering for $5. Please contact Lance Gravlee to reserve a dinner.

Continuing Education for Health Equity

Like many communities around the country, we have used the PBS documentary Unnatural Causes to raise awareness and stimulate discussion about the causes of social inequalities in health. Now there is an online Continuing Education (CE) program for health service providers.

The online CE program for Unnatural Causes is produced by San Francisco State University and Community Health Works. CE credit is provided by the American Public Health Association and is available for physicians, registered nurses, certified health education specialists, and any provider whose board accepts CE credits for non-physicians. The program consists of a four-hour series that awards up to four CE credits per person for a cost of $50 per person. For more information, visit the program website.

Next HEAT Meeting is March 24

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 24, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Conference Room A (enter through cafeteria). We will focus on discussing our NIH proposal to support partnership development. Lasagna dinners will be available from TMH catering for $5. Please contact Lance Gravlee to reserve a dinner.

Next HEAT Meeting is February 24

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 24, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Conference Room A. We will continue planning for a community forum on health equity and discuss a new funding opportunity to strengthen community involvement with HEAT. Please come and make your voice heard.

Day of Dialogue on Minority Health III

Please mark you calendars for third Day of Dialogue on Minority Health, hosted by Bethel AME Church (501 W Orange Ave., Tallahassee, FL). The event will take place on Saturday, February 21, 2009, 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. This year’s theme is “Developing a Viable Church Health Ministry,” and featured speakers include Reverend Dr. Oveta Fuller, Dr. Cyneetha Strong, and Reverend Dr. Julius Harrison McAllister, Jr. For more information, view the save-the-date flyer here (PDF).

Next HEAT Meeting is January 27

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 27, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., at the Leroy Collins Public Library (200 W. Call Street), Henderson Room, in downtown Tallahassee. We will discuss new projects initiated by HEAT members, discuss HEAT’s structure, and renew plans for a community forum on health equity. Please come and make your voice heard.

CBPR and Healthy Public Policy

Policylink and the UC-Berkeley School of Public Health recently released a report featuring 10 case studies about using community-based participatory research (CBPR) to foster healthy public policy. The report, “Promoting Healthy Public Policy through CBPR,” is freely available here (PDF).

The diverse community-academic partnerships featured in this report remind us that all public policy is health policy. The case studies include work to improve school conditions in Los Angeles, to reduce diesel bus pollution in Harlem, to ease the transition from nursing homes to the community in Chicago, to promote food security in San Francisco, and to engage young people in policy-making in New Mexico.

These examples of successful community-academic partnerships are a model for what we can do with HEAT.

RWJF Community Health Leaders

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is calling for nominations for its Community Health Leaders program. They intend to make 10 awards in the amount of $125,000 each to “outstanding and otherwise unrecognized individuals who overcome daunting odds to improve health and health care, especially to underserved populations in communities across the United States. The nomination deadline is November 7. For a list of past recipients and details on this year’s call for nominations, see the program website.

Next HEAT meeting is July 22

The next HEAT meeting will take place on Tuesday, July 22, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., at the Leroy Collins Public Library (200 W. Call Street), Henderson Room, in downtown Tallahassee. We will discuss HEAT’s organizational structure and work toward plans for a community forum on health equity. Please come and make your voice heard.

CFP: Faith-based advocacy to end childhood obesity

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is seeking proposals from faith-based coalitions to end childhood obesity. According to the call for proposals, the aim of this funding opportunity is “to advance community policies or environmental changes that improve access to healthy foods and/or opportunities for physical activity.” RWJF is particularly interested in funding coalitions that focus on children who face the greatest risk of becoming obese, including racial and ethnic minorities who live in low-income communities, communities with limited access to health food choices, and/or communities with limited opportunities for safe physical activity.

The application deadline is July 25; a conference call for potential applicants will be held on June 18. Eligible applicants are limited to 501(c)(3) organizations, coalitions of congregations or partnerships of faith-based organizations, organizations with at least two years of experience in policy advocacy to promote social change, and coalitions with an annual operating budget of at least $350,000.

More information and details on how to apply are available at the RWJF website.