STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS
November 16, 2011

Council Development

Community Transformation Grant –A great deal of the BCCHC Coordinator’s time over the past month has been devoted to interim CINCH Project Coordinator duties. At the end of October, Marsha attended the CTG Kick-Off in Atlanta with George Schroeder and Leah Steimel for an orientation to the full Community Transformation Grant project nationally. Bernalillo County is one of 26 Capacity-Building grants, and there are 35 Implementation grants (NM Department of Health has an Implementation grant for several communities in NM, not including Bernalillo County). At the Kick-Off, the CDC emphasized repeatedly the importance of the CTG grants for demonstrating that “prevention works” – they’re looking to all of us to help build the case in today’s resource-strapped climate that prevention really does save money in the long-term.
Local activities to date for CINCH include:

  • Leadership Team meetings (10/18/11 and 11/15/11)
  • Processing job descriptions through BernCo Human Resources – Project Coordinator position to be posted by 11/18/11 and hired by January 2012
  • Lorri Romero from BernCo Parks & Rec brought on as Finance/Contracts Manager (.3 FTE)
  • Submitted required revised budget to CDC and response to concerns/recommendations in Notice of Grant Award (11/14/11)

The grant also includes funding for a half-time Administrative Assistant for BCCHC, to assist with the Health Council’s involvement in CINCH activities. This position will also be posted soon with anticipated hire date of January 2012.

Community Health Improvement Planning (CHIP) Process

PRIORITY: “Healthy and sustainable communities where all families and individuals have their basic needs met and prosper.”

Economic Democracy – The committee continues discussions on the possibility of working on a health impact assessment (HIA) to analyze the health impact of living wage policies on public employees in Bernalillo County. Contact Enrique at to get involved or for more information.

PRIORITY: “Improved health education outcomes for children/youth from pregnancy to age 25.”

Early Childhood Action Partnership (ECAP) - Judy Baca from DOH and Marsha continue as the primary representatives of BCCHC in ECAP activities and serve on the organizing team. ECAP focused during the summer on the subject of school readiness, engaging in a series of three study groups. The first two looked at 1) the indicators of school readiness;and 2) frameworks for organizing and aligning “collective impact” to improve those indicators, specifically the Strive model

(“Cradle to Career” as initiated in Ohio and being developed at UNM under the leadership of Vi Florez) and the Leadership in Action Program (LAP). The third study group held in September focused on development of an action plan based on the elements of collective impact. A follow-up meeting to discuss next steps was held on November 7th.

ABC Community Schools Partnership - Marsha and Judy have also worked with the Early Childhood Framework group of ABC CSP to help define the framework for how early childhood activities (including programs ranging from home visiting to educational programs to health/wellness to family economic security and neighborhood conditions) can be integrated into the community schools model/approach. Marsha also continues participation with the Systems Group, looking at elements of a county-wide community schools system that need to be supported, as well as the

Grant Management Committee that is coordinating the Kellogg Success by 8 grant that funds four schools in their development as “community schools.”An RFP calling for Coordinating Partner Agencies at those four pilot schools will soon be released. These are the agencies that will take the lead at each of those four school sites to coordinate all of the non-academic and before/after school

activities that take place at a school. The ABC Community Schools Partnership has recently posted the Executive Director position and has many applicants.

PRIORITY: “Improved healthcare access and quality of service for uninsured and indigent populations.”

From a memo sent to Health Councils from the NM Alliance of Health Councils (NMAHC):
Recently the NMAHC Executive Committee had a discussion with representatives of the New Mexico Medical Review Association regarding national and statewide efforts to reduce the numbers of avoidable hospital readmissions. The Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have embarked on a nationwide initiative to address this problem, and they are encouraging communities to examine the root causes of hospital readmissions and develop programs to address care transitions in their communities. Approximately $500,000,000 will be available during the next three years to support communities in developing formal care transition programs.

Prior to engaging in these efforts, communities will need to do needs assessments to examine the causes of hospital readmissions. New Mexico’s health councils may be well-positioned to take on these community needs assessments, as part of updating their community health profiles. Other possible sources of support for developing community health profiles may come from collaborating with local non-profit hospitals, who are required under the new health care reform legislation to conduct community health assessments every three years. The Federal Agency on Aging may also have some funding to support local community health assessments.

Contact Marsha if this is something you are interested in pursuing. If there are enough people who are interested to form a working group, we can contact the NM Medical Review Association for assistance.

NM Alliance of Health Councils (NMAHC)

  • The NMAHC Executive Committee met with the Secretary of Health on November 2ndto discuss renewed funding for health councils, and is moving forward with legislation to reinstate the DOH funding for health councils, tentatively at $1.9 million - $50,000 for each health council wanting to apply. Rhonda King from Torrance County will sponsor the legislation.
  • NMAHC has received a grant of $15,000 from the Con Alma Health Foundation to hire a part-time coordinator beginning in January.
  • NMAHC has reserved space in the Roundhouse on January 19, 2012, for a Public Health Day featuring health councils, NMPHA and possibly NMDOH services. There will also be a press conference in the Rotunda over the lunch hour about the value of public health. Contact Marsha if you are interested in helping set up and staff a table that day, or would like to help work on “messaging” pieces to include on our table.

Community Outreach and Participation

In addition to the meetings related to the BCCHC priorities (above), Marsha participates on behalf of BCCHC in the International District Healthy Community Coalition, including the group working on the HIA focusing on public safety on Central Avenue from San Mateo to Louisiana to inform the City’s International District Sector Development Plan. Marsha also continues work with the New Mexico Public Health Association, serving as Communications Committee chair.

APHA
Marsha and Martín attended the annual American Public Health Association conference in late November. Martín attended multiple sessions on the use of social media in varied contexts.

Marsha attended a full-day training on “Building a Culture of Healthy Living: Mobilizing Communities to Implement and Evaluate Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change Strategies” presented by the CDC. She also attended multiple sessions related to the role of the built environment on health behaviors, experiences with multi-sector work in the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) projects, a session on “Health Equity at Work” (critical health literacy training in a local health department in Washington state), and two sessions presented by the Spirit of 1848 Caucus - “Discrimination, Health and the Politics of Public Health Data” and “Power, Politics, and Healthy Communities in Societal & Ecologic Context: From History and Evidence to Transformative Knowledge for Action.”
Urban Health Extension

Enrique Cardiel continues working on the following activities:

  • Continuing work with UNMHSC, UNM, and community partners to provide health education on Critical Health Literacy. Supporting work from County and UNMHSC partners for health education as well. The Critical Health Literacy training to be presented in mid-December by Just Health Action from Washington state will be postponed until next summer.
  • Supervising the Map4Change project which is working on community engagement for the 2nd street corridor through Mountain View and San Jose as well as planning projects in the International District.
  • Supporting UNM HERO program in writing a health extension tool box for online access.
  • Facilitating International District Healthy Communities Coalition (IDHCC) in working toward coordinating services and policies for school health.
  • Facilitating the Economic Democracy group - the focus is on living wages in Bernalillo County.
  • Working on the International District Health Impact Assessment.
  • Participating on the City of Albuquerque's Affordable Housing Committee and the HM1 Task Force for Family Friendly Jobs.