Dear Community Partners and Key Stakeholders,
Summer is upon us and it is hard to keep up with all the programs, fundraisers and other activities taking place and our Engage, Support and Learn pages are full.
Summer is also a big data time for us in the Health Improvement Specialist office. We have hosted an epidemiology intern for the past several years and our current intern from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Anina Aaron, is hard at work updating our scorecard with new data that has been released by the state and other sources of secondary data. She's also working to help build-out our scorecard capabilities for specific strategy areas to better assist our workgroups.
The beautiful bounty of summer's fresh fruits and vegetables is more accessible to some of our SNAP recipients with the long-awaited launch of the Double Up Food Bucks program. Since the start of the soft launch 3 weeks ago, and with little more than in-store promotion of the program, already 85 individuals have signed up with over 100 sales transactions! You can read more about how to begin spreading the word on our Engage Page. We have no shortage of opportunities for engagement this month. Visit our page to find out how you can help us find partners, volunteers, sponsors and young "logo animators" (teaser, you have to visit the page to find out what that's about) for Open Streets Asheville 2017 coming back to downtown in September 17th, help better understand the extent of injuries and incidents at the Riverside Drive railroad crossing, support the annual school supply campaign, say thank you to our Buncombe School Board for supporting summer meals, and engage artists to help our national visualize what health equity looks like.
Last month we highlighted efforts of to start conversations throughout our community about our current opioid crisis and work on developing on customizable educational materials. Please continue to help us identify individuals and organizations that are interested in receiving training in how to use these materials. Please contact Chiloh Campbell if you would like to learn more or be trained in the presentation materials.
The beautiful bounty of summer's fresh fruits and vegetables is more accessible to some of our SNAP recipients with the long-awaited launch of the Double Up Food Bucks program. Since the start of the soft launch 3 weeks ago, and with little more than in-store promotion of the program, already 85 individuals have signed up with over 100 sales transactions! You can read more about how to begin spreading the word on our Engage Page. We have no shortage of opportunities for engagement this month. Visit our page to find out how you can help us find partners, volunteers, sponsors and young "logo animators" (teaser, you have to visit the page to find out what that's about) for Open Streets Asheville 2017 coming back to downtown in September 17th, help better understand the extent of injuries and incidents at the Riverside Drive railroad crossing, support the annual school supply campaign, say thank you to our Buncombe School Board for supporting summer meals, and engage artists to help our national visualize what health equity looks like.
Last month we highlighted efforts of to start conversations throughout our community about our current opioid crisis and work on developing on customizable educational materials. Please continue to help us identify individuals and organizations that are interested in receiving training in how to use these materials. Please contact Chiloh Campbell if you would like to learn more or be trained in the presentation materials.
The new Lunch and Learn series on African American History in Buncombe County has been well-received and there are 2 more topics scheduled with Commissioner Al Whitesides speaking on wage gaps and historical wage disparities in the African American Community. New learning opportunities include a September Community Resiliency Training, Building Better Balance Screener Training, and a Save the Date for the October Adverse Childhood Experiences Southeastern Summit. And in the "anytime" learning category, we also have links to specials sections in this month's The Nation's Health on Opioid Use and Injury Prevention. See Learn for details.
Just in time for peak produce season, you can enjoy a fabulous Farm-to-Table Meal on August 7th in Sunny Point Cafe's garden to support FEAST's cooking and garden education programs in Asheville City Schools. If you miss this event there is another Farm-to-Table event later in the month to support Pisgah Legal's Homelessness Prevention Project as well as information on September's Poverty Forum. Our VOICE is still accepting applications for their August Backpacking Brothers program for middle school boys. There are a lot of job openings posted by CHIP partners this month as well as details on the YWCA's Spanish-language childbirth class. More information on all of these with link to purchase tickets can be found on our Support page.
Several articles on opioid use that were previously posted on our Facebook feed were discussed at the June Advisory Council meeting. You can still find these as well as a growing list of resources on our Resources You Can Use page. Please continue to share your needs for support, resources and information to help us all be successful in our work together! Send Facebook or Blog content to Terri at anytime and Update information the second week of the month.
In appreciation of all you do!
Deanna, Lourdes & Terri
In appreciation of all you do!
Deanna, Lourdes & Terri
