Posts Tagged ‘Backyard Initiative’
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 “Tell Me a Story” and Diabetes Projects Receive Support
by Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center In August, the Commission on Health, a citizen group of people who live in the Phillips community or in the Powderhorn Park, Central, or Corcoran neighborhoods, gave its support to two more projects developed by Citizen Health Action Teams of the Backyard Initiative. The Backyard Initiative is a partnership between Allina and the community surrounding Allina headquarters to develop ways to improve the health of the community. Communications/ “Tell Me a Story” CHAT One of the goals of the BYI Initiative is to build the capacity and skills of residents in any ways that will contribute to their overall health. At the CHAT meetings, people often talk about how giving people opportunities to express themselves is a crucial component of health; it is one of the statements in the BYI definition of health. The “Purpose Statement” for the Communication CHAT is: “Working to lessen or eliminate the divide [...]
The Power of Story in the Backyard
by Janice Barbee, Cultural Wellness Center Throughout the process of bringing together residents to work together to improve health in the Backyard area, we are constantly reminded of the importance of story. When the Cultural Wellness Center first convened residents to hear about plans for the Backyard Initiative, residents told many stories ”“ stories about the history of the community, about residents”' relationships with Allina and other organizations, about people”'s hardships as well as hopes. “I see a lot. I see street level negative activity. I see garbage everywhere. I see people struggling. I see people on street corners, standing off the freeway. I see prostitutes. I see people going to work. I see people like Carol and Shirley and Miss Phoebe, people with conviction.” “I see more diverse businesses, more activity up and down Lake Street coming back. I own a business. There are so many smaller, family owned businesses, which is [...]
