Susan wow this information is great, thanks.
I am just reading this brillant book called "We Make the Road by Walking:
Conversation on Education and Social Change". It is made up of conversations
between Myles Horton and Paulo Freire. [Edited by Brenda Bell, John Gaventa
and John Peters. Temple University Press, Philadelphia. 1990.] Have you read
it? I think it reconfirms a lot of the ideas that you have gathered.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Lilley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 4:26 AM
Subject: Re: population health for community volunteers
> Recently I posted a request for information, suggestions, examples
> relating to writing about population health for the rural senior
> volunteers. I received numerous responses and I wish to thank all of you
> who took the time to send in your thoughts.
>
> I have since prepared an outline for a series of articles, and drafted the
> first of these. While I am not free to circulate my work through the list
> serve at this time, I will share it with any of you who request it after
> it is published. However, I do want to share all of the suggestions I
> received from people on the list serve. Some excellent work has been done
> in this area.
>
> These are the resources that people recommended:
>
> Series of articles on health determinants produced by the
> Saskatchewan Public Health Association
> http://www.cpha.ca/english/policy/pstatem/hdeterm/list.htm
>
> Making Connections: A Community Affair, produced by the Health
> Determinants Partnership in Ontario. The brochure includes stories and
> pointers for people who would like to create healthier communities. You
> can download a free copy of this guide at
> www.making-connections.com.
>
> Building a Healthy Future, the popular version of The 2nd Report on the
> Health of Canadians
> http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/phdd/resources/Building_e.pdf
>
>
> "Inspiring Change: Healthy Cities and Communities in Ontario" from the
> Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition. Available for $10 through the
> following website
> www.opc.on.ca/ohcc or email [log in to unmask]
>
> The Ottawa Charter www.who.dk
>
> "Social determinants of health: the solid facts."
> http://www.who.dk/healthy-cities
>
> Community quality of life approach
> http://www.utoronto.ca/qol/communit.htm
>
> I would also add the article in Newsweek, that Dennis sent around
> yesterday:
> Is Our Society Making You Sick? Americas health lags behind that of more
> egalitarian nations. Economic equality is the medicine we need By Stephen
> Bezruchka, M.D NEWSWEEK Feb. 26 2001 issue My Turn section
> http://www.msnbc.com/news/532083.asp
>
>
> Others wrote with tips on popular writing, working with senior volunteers,
> and rural life in general. For brevity, I won't include all of these.
> Here is an edited sampling:
>
> You must use very user friendly language, grade 6 to 8 level
> approximately, very few scientific terms. If you can put in drawings, or
> other visuals that are somewhat comical, yet to the point, that would be
> very useful. Use as few words as possible to put the message across.
> Make it interactive if you can: crossword puzzles, questions and answer,
> find the missing part (with answer somewhere else in the newsletter). Make
> it positive with very few 'do not's. ( I have worked as literacy
> coordinator for three years; this is where this stuff comes from). Try to
> make them 'identify' by using little anecdotes or short case histories
> with a positive ending (hopefully). Ask for feedback in one way or
> another: small contests (inexpensive, but attractive I mean. It could be
> a book or a brochure they can get for free.). Games, humour, simple
> sketches, rewards, you know that kind of stuff.
>
> ****
>
> In my experience a lot of the "general" public (at least in BC) have
> absorbed the lifestyle messages quite well. The challenge is to get them
> to the collective aspects. It might be easier in the Atlantic provinces
> because people have more of a culture of helping each other out.
>
> ****
>
> My experience has been that communities know intrinsically what keeps them
> healthy; what they often lack is information about contacts, existing
> programs and how to organize/take leadership.
>
> ****
>
> I have some thoughts on this as I work with many seniors as volunteers
> doing health promotion. Here are some things I have found: Seniors like
> to work with others, when teaching fitness, if there are a few of them
> they can share the work, inspire each other, and if one is good at the
> warm ups and another likes the cool down, then they can stay within their
> comfort zone which they appreciate. Also, we found that many promote
> health to individuals, by being a companion, helping out the person,
> one-on ones, sharing our health prevention information can make a real
> difference. We also found that the volunteers liked to promote information
> that was fun and interesting and limited to one page, the true and false
> health quizzes we have are very popular for getting dialogue going. We
> found that volunteers also liked to be able to have resource materials to
> give away, hand out free samples and little gifts. Seniors also liked to
> pick up resource materials to digest at their leisure and share with
> others. They also liked having videos to show and resource persons to give
> the sessions, volunteers set up the session, make everyone welcome,
> introduce the speaker or the video. Volunteers also like to do different
> things like man a display booth, be an adviser, answer questions, make
> sure promotional material are always available. They don't necessarily
> have to deliver health promotion directly to contribute and make a
> difference. Senior volunteers also love to teach fitness to other seniors
> and there has to be free training, free CPR and on-going support on at
> least a tri-monthly basis for volunteers. These are some of my experiences
> with seniors and health promotion.
>
> Thanks once again for your support.
>
> --
> Susan Lilley
> 7 Canterbury Place
> Dartmouth NS B2Y 4J5
> Tel: (902) 463-1837
> Fax: (902) 469-0833
> http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~LilleyS/Profile.html
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