September 15, 2014
Cameron hosts regional health summit
With an eye towards advancing community health across the Southside region of Virginia, The Cameron Foundation is hosting a summit on Wednesday, September 17, that will engage stakeholders from health and human service organizations, local government and elected officials, the business community, faith leaders, and youth leaders. The Healthy Communities Regional Summit will focus on creating cross-sector collaborations to address the multiple factors that determine the overall health of Southside Virginia. The event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Community Life Center of Tabernacle Baptist Church, 418 Halifax Street, Petersburg, VA 23803.
“The research shows there are a number of health indicators that are impeding our quality of life in this region,” noted Cameron President J. Todd Graham. “We believe that convening key individuals from across multiple sectors is essential to reverse some of these negative health trends and improve outcomes for people. The need for greater community collaboration is one of the key findings that came out of the health needs assessment that the Foundation published last year, and this summit provides the type of forum for those partners to look at the health issues together,” he explained. The Cameron Foundation’s 2013 health needs assessment is available for viewing and downloading at camfound.org/about-us/publications.
Conference co-hosts include Dr. Michael O. Royster (Vice President – Richmond Office, Institute for Public Health Innovation) and Dr. Joseph D. Wilkins (Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Southside Regional Medical Center).
The summit will kick off with welcoming remarks from Delegate Rosalyn R. Dance and will feature several other notable speakers with expertise in the public health arena. Marissa Levine (Commissioner, Virginia Department of Health) is among the panelists who will discuss the health trends impacting Southside Virginia and how to begin building a culture of health in the region. Michael Cassidy (President and CEO, The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis) also will serve on that panel and will discuss his data analysis of some of the health challenges and opportunities for the region.
Julie Willems Van Dijk (Co-Director for County Health Rankings & Roadmaps at University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute) will present national examples of challenged communities that have made strides in improving their health indicators. Van Dijk also will review resources that are available through the County Health Roadmaps program, which was developed with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to inform the planning needed to address the community’s health needs.
Three other speakers will present collaborative models that they have employed in their communities for similar purposes. Sharon Arndt, Community Transformation Grant Project Director for Fairfax County, will share details of the Live Healthy Fairfax Initiative. Jessica Mullen, Chair of Healthy Portsmouth as well as Health Educator, Sr. at Portsmouth Health Department, and Brannon Godfrey, Deputy City Manager for the City of Portsmouth, will outline their collaborative efforts to advance community leadership to address prevention of chronic disease in that city using the ACHIEVE model. ACHIEVE is a best-practice approach to community-level planning and is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The summit will conclude with a call to action by Tim Joyce, President and CEO of YMCA of Greater Richmond.