Making it Better, Your Minnesota's Health Improvement Log

View on the Web

October 8, 2015

Current and archived issues available at www.health.state.mn.us/divs/oshii/log

To be added to the distribution list please email Health.MakingitBetter@state.mn.us.

In This Week's Issue

• Don't forget!
• Grantee Feedback Form
• 6 Things You Should Know about Poverty in Minnesota ~ Minnesota Compass
• Basecamp Tip ~ Download Multiple Files at Once
• Resource ~ Minnesota Education Statistics Summary ~ Minnesota Department of Education
• Funding Opportunity ~ Safe Routes to School ~ MnDOT
• Training ~ School Nutrition Directors ~ MDE
• Funding Opportunity ~ Transportation Alternatives Program ~ MnDOT
• Resource ~ Farm to Child Care ~ MDE
• Call for Proposals ~ MN Schoolyard Garden Conference ~ Due Oct 15
• Resources ~ Rural Communities Share Their Stories ~ ChangeLab Solutions
• Report ~ Flavored Tobacco Product Use Among Middle and High School Students ~ CDC
• Resource ~ Health Equity in Tobacco Prevention and Control ~ CDC
• “What’s the Latest With the Flu": Message from the American Academy of Pediatrics for Caregivers/Teachers
• Save the Date ~ Regional Learning Meetings ~ October
• Reminder to Tribal Grantees ~ Work plans & Budgets Due Oct 16

Don't forget!

• Weds-Fri ~ Oct 7-9 ~ Community Health Conference 
• Tues ~ Oct 13 ~ Regional Learning Meeting ~ Cloquet 
• Thurs ~ Oct 15 ~ Regional Learning Meeting ~ Marshall

Do you have a resource or success story (“gem”) to share for a future issue?  Submissions for each week’s Thursday publication are due by noon every Tuesday to Health.MakingitBetter@state.mn.us or community specialists for:

• SHIP  Meredith Ahlgren, Allison Heinzeller, Jessica Smith or Dan Taylor
• Tobacco Pa Khang
• American Indian LaRaye Anderson or Sarah Brokenleg
• Community Wellness Rachel Mahon Bosman

Grantee Feedback Form

Do you have a suggestion or general feedback (good or bad) you would like to share with MDH? If so, you can now submit an online Grantee Feedback Form to OSHII. To access the form, click here.

6 Things You Should Know about Poverty in Minnesota ~ Minnesota Compass

6 things you should know about poverty in Minnesota: Myth-busters edition

Minnesota Compass Project Director Craig Helmstetter uses new estimates from the Census Bureau to bust commonly-accepted myths about poverty in Minnesota.

Basecamp Tip ~ Download Multiple Files at Once

Every so often, someone posts several files to Basecamp at once like a bundle of documents to help introduce a topic. You might need to take the files and do something with them, like make changes, email them to someone else, etc.

When that happens, wouldn't it be nice to grab 'em all in one fell swoop? Well, now you can! There's a new option to download all files attached to something in Basecamp, click here for instructions. 

Resource ~ Minnesota Education Statistics Summary ~ Minnesota Department of Education

Also known as Schools, Districts and Teachers at a Glance, visit the Data Center where you can find the number of districts, schools, teachers and student enrollment in Minnesota.  Visit Minnesota Education Statistics Summary.

Funding Opportunity ~ Safe Routes to School ~ MnDOT

Minnesota schools and their partners are invited to apply for Safe Routes to School grant funds for planning and infrastructure projects to encourage more students to walk and bicycle to school. Applications are due on January 8, 2016. Visit the SRTS grant page for applications and solicitation details.

Training ~ School Nutrition Directors ~ MDE

MDE-School Nutrition Programs is excited to offer a training for school nutrition directors during the Minnesota Education Association (MEA) break. This training will be presented through USDA Farm to School Team and will be offered in Rochester and Sartell.

The Procuring Local Foods for Child Nutrition Programs training provides a basic overview of federal procurement principles and covers a host of topics related to sourcing and purchasing local foods. This training highlights the variety of mechanisms schools can use to purchase local products while staying in accordance with federal procurement regulations, and the many areas within a solicitation where schools can express their desire for local products. Participants will leave with a solid understanding of how to target local foods when conducting both formal and informal procurements, use the Geographic Preference option, and use the USDA Foods and Department of Defense (DoD) Fresh programs to enhance local purchasing.

Thursday, October 15, 2015 | 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Southeast Service Cooperative and Wood Lake Meeting Center, 210 Wood Lake Drive SE, Rochester, MN 55904 | Rochester registration.

Friday, October 16, 2015 | 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. | Resource Training Solutions, 137 - 23rd Street South, Sartell, MN 56377 | Sartell registration.

Funding Opportunity ~ Transportation Alternatives Program ~ MnDOT

The Transportation Alternatives Program is a competitive grant opportunity for local communities and regional agencies to fund projects for pedestrian and bicycle facilities, historic preservation, Safe Routes to School and more. Minnesota will be soliciting projects for approximately $7.5 million in available grant funding across the state. See solicitation details.

• Oct. 30, 2015 -- Letter of intent deadline
• Jan. 8, 2016 -- Full grant application deadline
• April 15, 2016 -- Grant recipients announced.

Resource ~ Farm to Child Care ~ MDE

Child Care Resource Letter from MN Department of Education highlighting Farm to Childcare Month: the October issue of What’s the Dish? is a special edition celebrating Farm to Child Care Month! The newsletter announces the “Farm to Child Care” video featuring Minnesotan’s in action – showing how family day care homes and child care centers are including gardening and farmers in their curriculum. Read on to learn about new resources and partners available to support your efforts in planning gardening activities next spring. Join in apple eating fun by “crunching together” in the Great Lakes Great Apple Crunch Day on October 22. Learn more in this issue!

Call for Proposals ~ MN Schoolyard Garden Conference ~ Due Oct 15

Contribute to the growing success of school gardens in Minnesota by presenting at the 4th Annual Schoolyard Garden Conference on March 4, 2016! Over 250 teachers, school administrators, school food service professionals, Master Gardeners, parents, and other school garden supporters attend this event to share ideas and resources for building and sustaining school gardens. Consider the following topic areas when creating a presentation proposal: 

• School Gardens 101 
• Curriculum Connections 
• Horticultural Best Practices 
• Program Sustainability 
• Farm to School 
• Special Topics 

Submit your presentation proposal by October 15 at http://bit.ly/mnsgc2016cfp.

Resources ~ Rural Communities Share Their Stories ~ ChangeLab Solutions

Rural communities are uniquely positioned to improve health outcomes. Residents of rural areas develop tight-knit social networks, can more easily work with local leaders, and are often able to do a lot with a little. These assets help many communities overcome geographic and economic barriers to good health.

ChangeLab Solutions, in partnership with the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists, has compiled these stories and created three easy-to-use handouts that focus on nutrition, physical activity, and schools. 

Report ~ Flavored Tobacco Product Use Among Middle and High School Students ~ CDC

CDC Report: 7 in 10 students who currently use tobacco used a flavored product

A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) released last week reports 70 percent of U.S. middle and high school students who have used a tobacco product in the past 30 days have used at least one flavored tobacco product during this period, according to a study published by the CDC and the FDA.

Limitations on sales of flavored tobacco products may prevent tobacco use among youth. Additional strategies that may reduce youth tobacco use include:

• Raising the minimum age of purchase for all tobacco products to 21 years of age.
• Increasing the price of tobacco products.
• Adopting comprehensive smoke-free laws.
• Implementing national public education media campaigns.

To learn more about this report visit www.cdc.gov/mmwr.

Resource ~ Health Equity in Tobacco Prevention and Control ~ CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Office on Smoking and Health has published a new Best Practices user guide: Health Equity in Tobacco Prevention and Control.

The Best Practices user guide on Health Equity in Tobacco Prevention and Control can help you:

• Select and implement evidence-based strategies to promote health equity and reduce tobacco-related disparities 
• Learn from real-world examples of efforts to achieve health equity in tobacco prevention and control
• Provide information to gain support for tobacco control efforts that focus on health equity
• Identify the best tobacco control resources and tools to help in planning efforts.

The online version of the guide is available on CDC’s Smoking & Tobacco Web site here.  

“What’s the Latest With the Flu": Message from the American Academy of Pediatrics for Caregivers/Teachers

The 2015-2016 influenza season (flu) is here. As you know, influenza infection can be serious, resulting in hospitalization or death of some children every year. Influenza immunization is the best strategy to reduce infection and spread. Therefore, it’s critically important for everyone to get vaccinated for seasonal influenza now. This important approach puts the health and safety of everyone in the child care setting first.

Annual influenza vaccine is recommended for all people 6 months of age and older. The best way to protect young children from getting infected is for all family members and people who take care of the child to get immunized. This is called "cocooning", and it is especially important for adults who care for infants younger than 6 months, because these children are too young to get vaccinated. The vaccine will also protect expecting mothers and their unborn babies, and will help protect their newborn baby in the first few months of life.

More information from the AAP here.

Save the Date ~ Regional Learning Meetings ~ October

Learning objectives:

• Applying community engagement milestones to healthcare and workplace settings, using a health equity lens
• Understand new SHIP 4 activities for the workplace, health care and tobacco cessation strategies
• Applying new techniques to old strategies (how layering, dementia and fit into the SHIP framework)

October 13 | 9am-4pm | Cloquet | Cloquet Forestry Center, 175 University Rd, Cloquet, MN 55720 **Note location change**

October 15 | 9am-4pm | Marshall | Southwest Health & Human Services, Third Floor, Rooms 4 & 5, 607 West Main Street, Marshall, MN 56258

October 20 | 9am-4pm | Roseville | Minnesota Department of Education, Room CC-14, 1500 Highway 36 West, Roseville, MN 55113

October 27 | 9am-4pm | Rochester | Southeast Service Cooperative, Wood Lake Meeting Center, 210 Wood Lake Drive SE, Rochester, MN 55904

Reminder to Tribal Grantees ~ Work plans & Budgets Due Oct 16

Workplans and budgets for Tribal Ship and Tribal Tobacco are due to MDH Oct 16. Please feel free to contact your Community Specialist if you are in need of assistance or have questions or concerns.

No announcements

No announcements