Participation Type
Workshop
Session Title
Session 4.15 Health
Presentation #1 Title
How to Build a Healthy Appalachian Community: Tools honed in Madison County, NC 1970-2015
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Madison County is well known for its mountains and its traditional music and festivals, but another kind of tune has played out over the past half century as its residents have created a wide array of health services and rehabilitated homes improving the safety and health of many families’ living conditions. Working collaboratively with staff in a variety of agencies, residents have organized community-based health initiatives in smoking cessation, diabetes control, children’s dental health and a community-wide “consortium,” which has garnered some $2,000,000 in grants to transform health and health services. Volunteer firefighters, partnering with local emergency service professionals helped remap the county to bring a 911 system online, replacing a maze of 13 emergency telephone numbers. Local volunteers led by skilled craftsmen with grant-funded materials, have installed roofing and ramps to improve homes. Madison County’s long oral tradition now includes tales of agencies, churches, schools, community organizations and residents undertaking collective actions to overcome barriers to health and hope for a better future. Participants will leave this workshop with tools developed in this community organizing work. The presenters have distilled their experience into high-powered products for consumption elsewhere in the region. The tools enable identifying communities and community networks, assessing resident understandings of strengths, needs and desires; building networks from existing informal networks, schools and agencies, and implementing and assessing action. (We emphasize this workshop will not be an historical overview, but an account of lessons learned and tools developed which can be used elsewhere.)
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Tom Plaut has been with the Madison Community Health Consortium since 1989. He worked with June Trevor at MAHEC, taking the lessons learned in organizing the Consortium to surrounding mountain counties. Retired from full-time teaching sociology at Mars Hill, he conducts cultural sensitivity workshops for health providers and co-chairs the Appalachian Studies Committee at UNCA’s College for Seniors. He is a past president of the ASA and recipient of its Williams-Brown Service Award.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
June Trevor was the coordinator of the Madison Community Health Consortium at its founding in 1989 and later worked with the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) to develop similar health partnerships in 16 mountain counties. She later spent 12 years directing the Madison County Smart Start partnership’s childcare resource and referral services before becoming the volunteer coordinator for the county’s Community Housing Coalition. On Wednesday nights, she sings at Zuma’s Coffee, in Marshall.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Teresa Strom has been with the Hot Springs Health Program for over 28 years and has been its Interim Executive Director since April 2014. Started in 1971 by two nurses and a community organizer, the Hot Springs Health Program today has four clinics with pharmacies, a home health service and a hospice. It employs some 130-140 people and serves a population of 20,000. Each year, its clinics have approximately 42,000 medical visits and fill 85,000 scripts.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Christopher Brown is the Executive Director of the Community Housing Coalition of Madison County, an independent nonprofit dedicated to promoting and facilitating healthy, safe and affordable housing through advocacy, education and resource development since 1999. Focusing on the human side and bridge building across a diverse spectrum of perspectives has always been Christopher’s passion whether working in mental health, construction, or as a volunteer in municipal government, community organizations or education. http://lnkd.in/dX8G4sQ
How to Build a Healthy Appalachian Community: Tools honed in Madison County, NC 1970-2015
Madison County is well known for its mountains and its traditional music and festivals, but another kind of tune has played out over the past half century as its residents have created a wide array of health services and rehabilitated homes improving the safety and health of many families’ living conditions. Working collaboratively with staff in a variety of agencies, residents have organized community-based health initiatives in smoking cessation, diabetes control, children’s dental health and a community-wide “consortium,” which has garnered some $2,000,000 in grants to transform health and health services. Volunteer firefighters, partnering with local emergency service professionals helped remap the county to bring a 911 system online, replacing a maze of 13 emergency telephone numbers. Local volunteers led by skilled craftsmen with grant-funded materials, have installed roofing and ramps to improve homes. Madison County’s long oral tradition now includes tales of agencies, churches, schools, community organizations and residents undertaking collective actions to overcome barriers to health and hope for a better future. Participants will leave this workshop with tools developed in this community organizing work. The presenters have distilled their experience into high-powered products for consumption elsewhere in the region. The tools enable identifying communities and community networks, assessing resident understandings of strengths, needs and desires; building networks from existing informal networks, schools and agencies, and implementing and assessing action. (We emphasize this workshop will not be an historical overview, but an account of lessons learned and tools developed which can be used elsewhere.)
