I have been following the discussions around the issue of poverty,
Health Units, health promotion activities, lifestyle choices, etc. with
a great interest. I am a member of a couple of small community based
organizations who are trying to make our local community a healthier
place in which to live, work and play.



Lately, there has been a few community meetings held to discuss health
promotion initiatives, mainly dealing with issues of heart health and
early years. These meetings have continued to emphasize the need for
lifestyle change programs with these programs being run by the
'professionals' and delivered to those in the community who 'need to be
taught' how to make healthy choices. My experience has been that many in
the community know already the changes they need to make but when faced
with the pressures and stress that poverty brings, they are simply
trying to survive.



Our organizations have emphasized the need for programs that supply (and
usually need to initiate) the resources and expertise to the
communities, but allow them to run their own programs (although we offer
supervision and support). Too often, I have seen good community-based
programs end when (i) funding has been obtained by an outside
organization for a similar program, (ii) the program is brought into the
community and run by paid staff from this organization, and (iii) when
the funding ends, the program is finished - but the original community
run program is now dead.



So, can we please start to share some very practical ideas on good
community run programs that improve the health of the whole community? I
tried to get our local health unit to consider allocating some of their
early years funding to providing small healthy community grants like our
district health council used to provide but there was not any interest
in doing this. I do not have time to search a lot of sites but believe
that there are a number of people on this list who are running or have
run effective programs. Please provide a brief synopsis of the program,
who it was (is) targeted to and whether or not you believe it was (is)
effective. Potential sources of funding to assist the community in
running a similar program would be appreciated.



Thanks,





Peter Jones

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North Victoria Healthy Communities Coalition

Youth Aflame Ministries Inc.

4094 Monck Rd., P.O. Box 322

Coboconk, ON   K0M 1K0

(705) 454-8875

(705) 454-9197 Fax

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