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Making a Difference Through Coalitions
| Name | Eleanor Jones | | Situation | Members of York County Children and Weight Coalition were having problems forming an effective coalition. They had only 3-4 active members and had been unable to move from discussion of the major health problems resulting from childhood obesity/weight problems in York County to achieving solutions. They asked the County Community Development Agent to work with them utilizing the Non-Profit training program to help them
form a stable, and more effective coalition that could help reduce childhood obesity and its resulting heath risk. | | Response | The agent began conducting segments of the training at monthly meetings on creating effective mission, vision, and goal statements and developing action plans.
| | Impact | 100% of the members indicated that the coalition had become more effective after the training. Coalition members used their gained knowledge to develop a working mission statement and an action plan of specific steps. As a result, the Children and Weight Coalition has grown from four active members to 10. Two members presented a program explaining the Coalition to the York County Interagency Council. This program incorporated how the Interagency Council could support and work with the Coalition. After the presentation to York County Interagency Council, the Council asked that the Coalition to become one of their task forces so that both groups could work together to find solutions and help families achieve a better quality of life. The Interagency Council is
composed of the major agencies and organizations in the county focusing on improving our quality of life. This collaboration opened the door for the Coalition to impact many more families.
As a result of completing the action steps, the coalition conducted an
assessment of community groups and agencies that could potentially be a
part of the coalition and an assessment of groups/agencies that could potentially receive resource and referral information for the parents and
youth that are involved in their programs. They used and adopted the knowledge they gained to compile a resource guide/referral for doctors, schools, and people who work with youth. Members have distributed this to those identified as needing the resource. They are also adding information about this and the coalition to local agency web sites. A local physician, a coalition member, has presented information on the resource guide and the coalition to the local medical association. He has provided the Resource Guide to local physicians. Now local physicians are making their patients and parents of children with weight problems aware of these resources and providing copies of information for them. They are
now working on their sixth step, a Community Summit to be held fall 2005.
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Last update7/9/2008
This website is maintained by Cheryl Clary.
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