Health Reform Rapid Response: The Conversation on Prevention

While the upcoming election dominates national media outlets, public health advocates across the country have been busy making their voices heard. This is a crucial moment to highlight prevention work unfolding in communities across the country. We know that in the months ahead, prevention initiatives will likely face an array of threats, from sequestration to the potential for more targeted cuts to the Prevention and Public Fund, like the cuts we’ve seen over the past year.

When community prevention initiatives work, it’s easy to take major gains in health and equity for granted. Successful community prevention can look like safe streets and neighborhoods, access to healthy foods and places to play, breathable air and drinkable water. These kinds of common-sense solutions don’t naturally make headlines the way accidents and problems do. It’s up to us to reflect the impact of these investments by making prevention visible.

This week, we’re highlighting local news stories that capture prevention work underway right now from Alaska to South Carolina.


The stories

• Juneau Empire, SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium: “Communities have the best ideas about what will work for them,” SEARHC Community Transformation Grant Program Manager Martha Pearson said. “The Community Transformation Grant program gives communities the opportunity to develop and implement their own initiatives to prevent chronic diseases, which are the leading causes of death and disability in Southeast Alaska.”
• The Travelers Rest Tribune, Greenville, South Carolina: "The grant provides a tremendous boost to expand the efforts already underway in Greenville County Schools," said Greenville County Schools Superintendent W. Burke Royster. "We all know the importance of good health to the academic performance of our students and to the well-being of our employees. The healthier our employees are, the better they are able to deliver services to our students and help us create a healthier community throughout [the county]."
  
• The Highline Times, Seattle-King County, Washington: “We are thrilled to hear of HHS’s decision to award a Community Transformation Grant to our region”, said [Healthy King County Coalition] Co-Chair Nicole Sanders. “HKCC members have seen first-hand the results this sort of funding can make. This work helps us to move, it increases the nutritional options for both the old and young and helps people to breathe easier. This work allows all of us to live more fulfilled lives.”
  
• The North Bay Business Journal, Sonoma County, California: “This is a groundbreaking example of local communities benefiting from federal health care reform,” Supervisor Shirlee Zane said in a statement. “Our innovation and partnership here in Sonoma County set us apart, and the federal government clearly recognizes our efforts as worthy of its investment. These funds will improve the health of everyone in our community as we build a focused prevention effort.”
  
• New Ulm Journal, Brown County, Minnesota: Karen Moritz, Public Health director for Brown County, said, "Brown County Public Health is very excited about the opportunities this grant will provide to improve the health and well-being of the residents in our community. We look forward to working with Hearts Beat Back: The Heart of New Ulm Project (HONU) to create policies, systems and an environment that promotes healthy lifestyles that will lead to the prevention of chronic disease and make our community an even better place to live, work, and play.”
  
• Independent Tribune, Cabarrus Region, North Carolina: “This initiative is a unique approach to addressing chronic diseases, which are responsible for 75 percent of health care costs in the United States,” said William Pilkington, CEO, and public health director of Cabarrus Health Alliance. “The Community Transformation Grant will transform where our residents live, work and play so that they may lead healthier, more productive lives.”
  

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