The Louisiana Healthy Communities Coalition is evolving! Born of a "Eureka!" moment when a group of health experts working on various diseases came together and said "You know, though we're working on a variety of diseases, there are two things they all have in common: They're mostly caused by tobacco and obesity." Also knowing that change from the ground-level was needed in Louisiana, these groups said "Let's help communities determine exactly how they want to attack these problems and we'll support them." At that point, the statewide LHCC supporters laid out some specific goals and began providing training and resources to people in the state's nine health regions (based on the Louisiana Department of Health's regional designations).
That's the way it's been for a while, but now LHCC is upping its game. For the first time ever, there is a statewide team that has committed resources so that we have people working on LHCC full-time. We also know there are wonderful coalitions already working all over the state and we are working to integrate with those more fully, so we can work with what is already there – not just start another coalition. And to back that up, we are offering mini-grants to member coalitions so that our help can go beyond just training and resources, but to making real dollars-and-cents differences.
If you are interested in learning more about LHCC or being involved, contact Mikal "Mack" Giancola at mgianc@lsuhsc.edu.
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