Health Committee Meeting Notes – August 17th, 2021

Below are the notes from the Health Committee meeting held on August 17th, 2021. To download a Word file of these notes, click here.

• Welcome

• Announcements

  • Sarah Cosgrove (scosgrove@rrmc.org), In-home Asthma Program of Community Health Improvement and Partners for Prevention, Tobacco and Vaping program (https://www.partnersforprevention802.org/)
    • Received competitive grant for tobacco prevention and treatment work
    • Future project deliverables will be 3 to 5-minute informational videos on locating resources
    • Overall goal for the year is to empower and support existing youth groups in the area and bring in young adult population to help teach youth groups
      • Anyone with knowledge of existing groups can contact Sarah Cosgrove to connect her with them
  • Tracie Hauck (thauck@tpcrutland.org), Director of Turning Point Center
    • Stomping out Stigma public event, September 9^th from 10am – 2pm at Main St Park
      • Will contain the Deathnut Challenge, a dunking booth, and any community partners can have a table at the event
        • Contact Kyle Burditt (kburditt@tpcrutland.org) if you’d like to have a booth at the event
    • New family support group for those who have relatives struggling with substance abuse
      • Every Wednesday evening from 6:30pm – 8pm
      • Former lead of Witt’s End leads this new group with Turning Point Center
      • Contact Tracie Hauck if you’d like digital flyers to distribute
    • All staff at the Turning Point Center has a new email address
      • • The format for all staff is the individual’s first initial + last name @tpcrutland.org
  • Jamie Bentley (jabentley@rrmc.org), Community Health Needs Assessment
    • Set to be published by September 1^st
    • Graphic designer Christina Ryan (http://christina-ryan.com/) is involved to make the report be visually appealing
    • Implementation strategy will be released in the following weeks
  • Angus Chaney (angus@hpcvt.org), Homeless Prevention Center
    • Homeless Health Equity Capacity Building grants through the VT Department of Health may be developed
    • Intention is to create one-time grants for community agencies to address continuing Covid-related health disparities among people experiencing homelessness
    • Angus will share more information with the group as he receives it

• Regrouping Subcommittee Discussion

  • Project VISION Steering Committee is engaged in a discussion about what are our goals of all PV subcommittees? Are there unnecessary duplications among subcommittee objectives and goals? What has been achieved in the past year among the subcommittees and where will we move forward?
  • Subcommittees
    • Food Access
      • Will disband from Project VISION as there are numerous other groups in the county engaged in this focus
      • The Rutland County Hunger Council will become the main gathering meeting for those engaged in food access work
      • Kimberly Griffin will continue to update the Health Committee on food access work
    • NOC
      • Creating a second round of recovery educational videos
      • Clay Gilbert is retiring in about 5 months
      • Presumed the subcommittee work will continue as is with Project VISION
    • Mentoring and Youth Engagement Subcommittee
      • Will continue to remain as a subcommittee and engage in projects under the banner of the Vermont Youth Project
  • Brainstorm of health-related ideas that could be addressed by Project VISION
    • Issues related to aging dentists in the county, access to pediatric dentistry, access to dentistry for low-income and underinsured patients
    • There is a reduction of early childhood educators entering the field and lack of accessible childcare centers
      • encourage family friendly practices at businesses and centers of employment
    • building community education on specific health topics, promoting staff development, developing communication tool for events/ updates
      • where we live, work, grow, and play impact our health

• AmeriCorps VISTA

  • Position starting August 31^st is still vacant
  • Contact Renee Bousquet (Bousquet@vermont.gov) if you have any leads