171977 "Healthy and Active Rainier Valley Coalition": Promoting physical activity and nutrition through partnerships in an underserved community

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 1:00 PM

Diana Vergis Vinh, RN , Steps to Health, Public Health Seattle and King County, Seattle, WA
The Healthy and Active Rainier Valley Coalition is composed of 68 local businesses, citizens, non-profits and government institutions working together on our mission of promoting culturally relevant physical activity and nutrition programs and policies in the Rainier Valley.

We meet monthly as a group for an hour and a half at the Rainier Community Center. The first part of the meeting is networking, the second part is a focus on a project or current issue and the last part is reviewing minigrant applications.

In May of 2007 Steps to Health King County voted to allocate funds to HARVC for minigrants. Each grant was up to $3,000 and could be applied for by HARVC member organizations who were partnering on the grant with other members. We have given out 13 minigrants. All of these projects involved more than one organization in HARVC which promoted networking, collaboration and the development of mutual goals.

Successful programs include: Shop Arounds in multiple languages, a Healthy Restaurant Initiative promoting healthy menu options, community wide walking events, health promotion work in local schools, senior centers and churches.

Learning Objectives:
1) Attendees will be able to verbalize three ways to establish and sustain a community health coalition 2) Attendees will be able to list three community based successful programs to promote physical activity 3) Attendees will be able to list three community based successful programs to promote nutrition

Keywords: Community Collaboration, Community Outreach

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been a facilitator of the Healthy and Active Rainier Valley Coalition since it's inception one year ago.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.