Brandondale
Manufactured Home Community and Riverview Terrace Manufactured Home Community,
each in Chaska, partnered with Carver County Public Health to pass tobacco free
playground area policies. Riverview Terrace has also included their community
gardens in the policy. Both policies have a May 1, 2015 implementation date.
The landowners agreed that creating areas free of secondhand smoke were
beneficial to the health of residents, staff and visitors and that tobacco free
playgrounds and gardens helped to establish social norms that positively
influence children. Carver County will also provide each manufactured home community
with signage that supports tobacco free air.
Blue Earth County SHIP
staff recently took advantage of construction plans on Monks Avenue in Mankato that
is slated for summer 2015. Plans already included traffic slowly measures
through new lane arrangements, complete sidewalks and on-street designated
lanes for bicyclists. They were, however, concerned the need to support high
volumes of college-bound pedestrians through marked mid-block crossings. They contacted
the City Engineering department and offered data collection support to build a
case for a mid-block crossing. They coordinated counts on six mornings during
January 2015 for a total of 25.5 hours. During these mornings, they counted
1,915 pedestrians crossing Monks Avenue mid-block (not utilizing crosswalks). As
a results of our data collection and SHIP funding for crosswalk
materials/signage, the City Engineering department incorporated three marked
crosswalks into the plans that were sent out for bid and
construction/installation will begin this summer.
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:
Minnesota has outperformed
nearby states by being the only one of its neighbors to bend the curve on
obesity rates, according to a recent MDH analysis of CDC data. Minnesota’s
adult obesity rates have held constant since 2008, while rates continued
climbing nationally and in nearby states. The analysis includes highlights of
how prevention programs like the Statewide Health Improvement Program can help
Minnesota lower health care costs and improve community health by reducing risk
factors that contribute to chronic disease. Read
the news release. Read
a fact sheet.
The Call for Proposals for
the 2015 Community Health Conference is now open here.
Share this notice and
encourage your colleagues and public health partners to submit proposals to
present concurrent sessions.
This year’s theme is Public
Health: Everyone, Every Day, Everywhere! The Community Health
Conference will be held October 7-9, 2015 at Cragun's Conference Center in
Brainerd, MN.
Concurrent session
proposals will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. on Friday, May 15, 2015.
Direct questions to Becky Buhler,
at becky.buhler@state.mn.us or
651-201-5795.
Conference registration,
resource table sign-up, and Cragun’s reservations will open July 15.
Date: Thursday,
May 28 beginning at 1pm - Friday, May 29 at 3pm.
Location: Duluth Entertainment Convention Center
A copy of the
brochure outlining all sessions can be found on the event webpage here.
Please visit the
event webpage to register! For the first
time, MPHA is offering a combination registration that allows non-MPHA members
to join MPHA at the same time as registering for the conference at the
reduced MPHA member rate.
Any questions
relating to the conference can be directed to events@mpha.net .
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