DOH Tobacco Prevention and Control has launched their teen-oriented, anti-tobacco web site, www.outrageavenue.com. This unique "hip approach" web site competes on the level with various teen-lifestyle web sites like MTV.com and Teen-Net.com as well as teen magazines like Seventeen and YM.
Currently the web site is calling for applications from high school students, who smoke or chew on a regular basis, for Unfiltered, a web-based reality series. The web cast, which will run in May, will follow five teens on a 48-hour tobacco-free adventure in Seattle, with MTV host Piggy Thomas. Regular content for the web site will be posted after April 16.
Joint Conference on Health
Health Disparities in a World without Borders
Call for Abstracts
Abstracts are being accepted for this year's Joint Conference on Health in Yakima October 8-9. The Office of Health Promotion is working with the conference planners to enhance the health education perspective is reflected in the sessions. One of the best ways to do this is for local health staff to submit abstracts describing their health promotion and education efforts for presentation at the conference. Do you have a project that you are proud of? Here's an opportunity to share with others what you have done, what worked and perhaps what didn't work. Attached is information on how to submit your abstract. Don't hesitate to contact the conference coordinator, Kathy Kimsey if you have any questions or need assistance in writing your abstract. Abstracts are due
April 27th and can be submitted through the web site www.wspha.org/JCH1.html or by mail.
Teach a Feature
Have you looked in the Health Educator's Toolbox? www3.doh.wa.gov/here/howto/HERE_ToolListing.aspx. It contains some practical tips and guidelines developed to provide quick reference for a variety of health education skills. The short, easy-to-use documents in the toolbox can help you brush up on skills, like giving presentations, developing educational materials or doing basic program evaluations. You will find the Best Practices fact sheets developed for Preventive Health Block Grant applications. Or you can look at a checklist of the desired qualities in a Community Health Advisor.
We try to add at least one or two new toolbox items each year. If there is a subject you would like to see covered, or if you have already written something you think would fit in the toolbox, please let us know
HERE@doh.wa.gov.
Mentor of the Month
Jane Wright
Jane Wright is the Kittitas County Health Department Assessment Coordinator. She earned a BA in Sociology from Ohio Wesleyan University and earned her Master's in Health Education from Central Washington University. Jane feels Washington State does a fabulous job of training Health Educators.
Jane started her career in heath education at the Kittitas County Health Department when they received AIDS Omnibus Funds. Thirteen years later she has gone from a Health Educator generalist to Assessment Coordinator and builder of community partnerships. She spent a year as an interim administrator— a job which she says she happily relinquished. At present she's involved in creating an internal evaluation tool for assessment and quality improvement for their health department programs. She's also serving on the statewide steering committee which oversees the development and implementation of the Public Health Standards.
There is a special place in Jane's heart for HIV/AIDS and tobacco education. She says, "I'm passionate about empowering people to educate and advocate for themselves." She loves making connections between individuals and organizations with common goals and interests, and convening community partners to tackle specific issues in a spirit of creative collaboration. Jane's advice to new health educators is to "keep it simple" by focusing on two or three key messages and always involving your audience as much as possible. She sees one of the biggest ongoing challenges for health education to be competition with the media and entertainment industry. She also believes, "funding will be a problem until society and policy makers embrace the value of the upstream approach— putting our efforts into prevention instead of treatment. We need to continue to measure as best we can the success of our work so that organizations can see the value in continuing to have a health education component."
Outside of the health department Jane enjoys yoga, hiking, spending time with her husband and dogs, and travelling to warm places. Her expertise includes convening and sustaining advisory boards and community groups; working with the media in a rural community; schmoozing the good old boys so that you can get what you want/need to do your job; and diplomacy. Jane can be reached by email WRIGJ@co.kittitas.wa.us or by phone 509-962-7005.
Editor's Note: With encouragement from our good friend Margo Harris, stories about past mentors of the month are now available on the H.E.R.E. web site
http://www3.doh.wa.gov/HERE/connect.html. Thanks Margo.
What's New
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Submission Form -- Community Projects
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