Local wellness efforts receives boost from Statewide Health Improvement
Program grant
SHIP works to build a foundation of good health for all Minnesotans.
"SHIP is the most successful program I have been involved with that brings the community together. This has truly been a success for Watonwan County," says John Baerg, former Watonwan County Commissioner and current SHIP Community Leadership Team Member.
Launched in 2008 as part of Minnesota’s bipartisan
health reform effort, SHIP works to help Minnesotans live longer, healthier
lives while building healthy, vital communities. SHIP encourages healthy eating, active living
and avoiding commercial tobacco by working with school, communities, workplaces,
and healthcare to make healthy choices easier. Statewide, the 2013 legislature
supported SHIP with $35 million for fiscal year 2014 and 2015, and now SHIP
funding will be available statewide once again. When SHIP began four years ago,
it was statewide with $47 million over two years; however, in 2012 and 2013 SHIP
received a 70 percent cut and the 15 million allocated only covered about half
the state, which included Faribault, Martin & Watonwan Counties.
“We’ve been
fortunate to have continued SHIP funding since the program began,” says
Faribault, Martin and Watonwan Counties SHIP Coordinator Chera Sevcik, “We
are excited to have this opportunity to take our ideas and work to the next
level.”
Faribault, Martin
and Watonwan Counties SHIP will be able to begin new projects across the
region, while continuing its existing community health improvement work, such
as:
·
Working
with the Active Living Coalitions in Blue Earth, Wells, Butterfield, St. James,
and Madelia to implement policies and practices that create active communities
by increasing opportunities for walking and biking.
·
Partnering
with our local school districts to improve healthy eating & physical
activity during the school day for both students and staff.
·
Partnering
with multi-unit housing managers/owners to adopt and implement smoke-free
policies inside apartment complexes.
“We
know from research that to really make a real, long-lasting change in the rates
of physical activity, healthy eating and tobacco exposure and use, we need to
help communities make it easier for their people to succeed,” says Michelle
Larson, Interim Director for the Office of Statewide Health Improvement
Initiatives, the home for SHIP at MDH. “That is why working with communities
has been a cornerstone of SHIP since its inception.”
Grants were awarded to community health boards across
Minnesota, which are made up of one or more counties and cities. Faribault,
Martin and Watonwan (FMW) Counties SHIP received both implementation and innovative
grant awards, allowing our partners to build on its existing health improvement
work. The implementation grants are aimed to work with communities, schools,
worksites, healthcare and childcare organizations to improve opportunities for
healthy eating, physical activity and reduce use of and exposure to tobacco. In
addition to the implementation grant work, FMW SHIP also received two
innovative grant awards. The first will be to develop a multifaceted,
coordinated approach to improve the health of our senior citizens in Martin
County. The project includes increasing access to healthy foods, specifically
fruits and vegetables for seniors, increasing access to walking and biking and
other evidence-based programs aimed to help senior citizens live longer,
healthier lives in their communities. The
second project is to work with the community of Madelia to implement a
sugary-beverage reduction campaign, similar to what has been done in other
communities around the country. This includes implementing policies and
practices to reduce consumption of sugary beverages, which have been directly linked
to the obesity epidemic.
“We are thrilled to continue our work we started four years
ago. SHIP has meant a lot to our community, and we know we have only just begun,”
said Sevcik.
