‘Health’ Archives
Update on the Backyard Initiative: BYI Citizen Health Action Teams Update
By Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center Every month at the Cultural Wellness Center, members from the Backyard Initiative Citizen Health Action Teams, or CHATs, come together to update each other on their activities and talk about common principles and problems in their community building work. Last month, on February 17, CHAT members discussed what it takes to work together and accomplish what they set out to do. The Backyard Initiative was started two years ago as a community partnership between Allina Hospitals and Clinics and the residents of Phillips, Powderhorn Park, Central, and Corcoran with the goal of improving the health of the community. Most of the work of the Backyard Initiative is carried out within Citizen Health Action Teams, where community members on each team have developed a strategy for improving health and are now in the process of implementing that strategy. CHAT Leadership in the Community Elder Atum Azzahir from the Cultural Wellness Center, [...]
Update on the Backyard Initiative Rebirthing Community: A new project gets approved by the Commission on Health
By Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center The Commission on Health approved the project of another Citizen Health Action Team (CHAT) of the Backyard Initiative. On February 3, 2011 the Rebirthing Community CHAT received the go-ahead to implement their project which intends to create “Communities of Light.” The Backyard Initiative was started two years ago as a community partnership between Allina Hospitals and Clinics and the residents of Phillips, Powderhorn Park, Central, and Corcoran with the goal of improving the health of the community. The core work of the Backyard Initiative is done within teams of community residents (CHATs) which develop and implement their members”' ideas. Each CHAT appoints two members to sit on the Commission. Rebirthing Community CHAT ”“ Creating Communities of Light The goal of the Rebirthing Community CHAT is to build and strengthen the relationships, the knowledge, and the capacity for community residents to create [...]
Anyone living in the Backyard area can help their community to improve health
By Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center The Backyard Initiative was started two years ago as a community partnership between Allina Hospitals and Clinics and the residents of Phillips, Powderhorn Park, Central, and Corcoran which has the goal of improving the health of the community. Health is defined as 1) a state of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being; it is not only the absence of infirmity and disease, 2) the state of balance, harmony, and connectedness within and amongst many systems ”“ the body, the family, the community, the environment, and culture; it cannot be seen only in an individual context, and 3) an active state of being; it cannot be achieved by being passive. This definition of health is not just a state of being ”“ it is a process of becoming, and the residents of the Backyard are using this description of health to become healthier. They are actively working on projects which increase balance, harmony, and connectedness within the [...]
