Project Goal

The Institute for Faith and Public Health Leadership equips faith and public health leaders to work together more effectively to improve the health of their communities. More specifically, the Institute will strengthen faith and public health partnerships and help participants identify and mobilize the unique assets that both disciplines bring to the work of eliminating health inequities—the preventable and unjust differences in health status based on the social conditions in which a person lives.

What?

This series will bring together faith and public health leaders from the metropolitan Chicago area who are working on HIV/AIDS, Emergency Preparedness, Chronic Disease, and Food Access. The Institute will provide tools and resources from both faith and public health perspectives to help leaders further develop or start a new collaborative approach to address root causes that lead to health inequities within these areas.
Participants will work in mixed, faith and health teams to explore four topics that are foundational to developing more coordinated faith and public heath partnerships – Root Causes, Assets, Assessment, and Advocacy. Teams will work together during the class and outside the class to develop a faith and public health partnership strategy around their topic.
The series will include five sessions:

• Introduction and Root Causes
• Assets
• Assessment
• Advocacy
• Strategies

All sessions will draw on content experts from both faith and public health sectors. Sessions will be interactive and will utilize faith practice as one of the structures for reflection and dialogue. Sessions will include time for teams to work together to develop relationships and their partnership strategy.

When and Where?

Sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the University of Illinois at Chicago campus.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012–Introduction and Root Causes
Tuesday, May 22, 2012–Assets
Tuesday, June 26, 2012—Assessment
Tuesday, July 24, 2012–Advocacy
Tuesday, August 14–Strategies

*Costs: $100 per team member – Costs includes training materials and lunch for each working session.

For more information, click here: Institute for Faith and Public Health Leadership Description

Or contact Rev. Kirsten Peachey from The Center at 847-384-3552 or kirsten.peachey@advocatehealth.com or Rani Mishra from the MidAmerica Center at 312.996.7919 or rmishra@uic.edu.

We are also accepting applications for the Excellent Emerging Organization Award (due February 15, 2012). This award is given annually to a smaller, grassroots organization that demonstrates the potential to become a major contributor to Chicago’s robust nonprofit community. This award comes with a $2,500 cash grant and $50,000 in capacity-building services.

All three awards will be presented at the Axelson Center Symposium on Tuesday, June 5, 2012. All finalists receive complimentary registrations for the entire conference.

Word versions of both applications are available here.

Axelson Award Application

Axelson Excellent Emerging Application

If you have further questions, feel free to contact the Axelson Center directly at (773) 244-5799, axelson@northpark.edu, www.northpark.edu/axelson.

Rethink Your Drink Media Campaign 

Cook County Department of Public health launched the “Rethink Your Drink” Campaign on January 2^nd. “Rethink your Drink” is part of a county-wide effort to reduce the consumption of sugar-loaded beverages. Sugar-loaded beverages (i.e., sodas, energy drinks, sports drinks) are the single greatest source of calories in the American diet, providing approximately 10% of the total average calories per day. The large increase in the amount of sugary drinks people consume, or drink, relates to the dramatic rise in adult and childhood obesity.

The new campaign aims to educate Cook County residents about the harmful effects of sugar-loaded drinks through print and transit advertisements as well as radio and television commercials. Cook County joins several other health departments from across the US to promote healthy drinking habits.

For more information about “Rethink Your Drink” and to take the pledge, please visit the CCDPH website at www.rethinkyourdrinknow.com. To learn more about how your faith community can participate in this campaign, contact Jessica Palys, Faith Community  Organizer for The Center for Faith and Community Health Transformation at 847-384-3528 or jessica.thecenter@gmail.com.

Please share information about the Accessible Faith Grant Program with leaders of houses of worship, disability rights advocates, and others who may know religious congregations that could benefit from this opportunity.  Please announce the Accessible Faith Grant Program through print or electronic newsletters, listservs, or other means available to you.  Click here for a copy of the flyer announcing the 2012 Accessible Faith Grant Program.  You will find a full description of the program, application form, and tips for completing the application in the Accessible Faith Grant Program section of the RRF website.

Please help spread the word immediately to give congregations adequate time to submit an application.  Applications will be accepted from March 1 through June 1, 2012.  Thank you for helping make others aware of the importance of accessibility improvements and the availability of funding for such efforts.

If you have questions or comments, please contact Retirement Research Foundation at AFG@rrf.org.

In Sacramento, California, Arden Manor, a community comprised primarily of refugee families from Nepal, rose to meet the challenges that underscore this health dilemma:  unhealthy eating habits, lack of access to healthy foods and the increase of violence throughout the neighborhood. Their solution: start a community garden! The Arden Manor Garden, established in the heart of a large apartment complex housing many refugee families, is sponsored by the Impact outreach program run by Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, one group associated with the Church World Service (CWS). CWS is a national organization that works to eradicate hunger and poverty, and sees community gardening as a way for refugee and immigrant groups to re-establish their roots, since for many families, gardening was their way of life in their native country.

CWS donated the tools, supplies and land necessary to start the Arden Manor Garden, but the community members took responsibility for making it bloom and are now harvesting the benefits! Beyond providing healthy food alternatives at no cost, the community garden serves as a social hub for people in the neighborhood. It fosters a sense of pride among the neighborhood and provides a productive activity for community members, especially children, to engage in during their free time. Today, many community members contribute to keeping up the garden on a daily basis, and lavender plants, fresh tomatoes, chilies and pumpkins are growing, providing fresh ingredients for the community’s more traditional dishes. There’s even a chicken coop in the corner, providing eggs as well as entertainment for the kids! As Vickie Guanzon, who spends time in the Arden Manor community garden every day, explained, “What this garden is doing is bringing families…together.”

Click here for more information about this project.

[1] Goel, Mita Sanghavi, Ellen P. McCarthy, Russell S. Phillips, and Christina C. Wee. “Obesity among US Immigrant Subgroups by Duration of Residence.” Journal of the American Medical Association 292.23 (2004): 2860-867. Print.

Jessica Fern is a Fall intern at the HHS Partnership Center.

Jill Zenoff from The Gan Project shares about the Sukkah and the Jewish Festival of Booths

We had a wonderful day at the Feastival Celebration: Nourishing Healthy Communities with Food and Faith on Monday, October 10, 2011.  Look below for materials, resources and links from the day.

Also, a HUGE thank you to our excellent partners in this endeavor, faith presenters, and workshop leaders. In  case you would like to work with any of the presenters in the future, they are listed below with information on how to contact them.

Click here to see the Feastival Plenary Presentation.

Children played an integral role in the Feastival!

Katy Regalado, www.faithinplace.org

Faith Exploration:

Muslim: Rozina Lopez & Nizar Jiwani, Ismaili Community Engaged in Responsible Volunteering (I-CERV); nizar.jiwani@gmail.com or www.TheIsmaili.org

Jainism: Hema Pokharna, hemapokharna.phd@gmail.com

Kwanza: Veronica Kyle, Congregational Outreach at Faith In Place; www.faithinplace.org

Jyotsna Bhatt and Dr. Sudha Rao demonstrate how food is integrated into Hindu faith practices.

Hindu: Dr. Sudha Rao; info@interfaith-intersection.com or http://interfaith-intersection.com/

Jewish:  Jill Zenoff at the Gan Project; theganproject@gmail.com or http://www.wix.com/ganproject/updates

Labyrinth:  Diane Tieman at Alexian Brothers; Diane.Tieman@alexian.net

Posada:  Graciela Contreras, gcontreras@archchicago.org

Small groups discussed how their faith informs how they relate to food.

Eating with SOUL:  Rev. Jackie Belile, www.livingwellministries.net

Faith-infused Yoga: Ali Niederkorn, aniederkorn@hotmail.com

Safe Routes to Worship: Active Transportation Alliance, www.activetrans.org

Cooking for a Healthier Life:  Melissa Graham of www.PurpleAsparagus.com and Jackie Vasan of BreadFromTheHeart@gmail.com

The Cool Learning Experience program used left-overs and paper trash from lunch to teach participants about composting.

Cool Learning Experience  Fun-Shop on Composting:  Barbara Waller of First Baptist Church of Waukegan; BarbaraWaller1@comcast.net

Chair Yoga: Angela Nicolosi, a.m.nicolosi@sbcglobal.net

Tools to Get Your Congregation Moving!:  Jackie Carson of Temple Fitness; Templefitness@comcast.net

Nutrition for Moms & Babies:  Tikvah Wadley of Health Connect One http://www.healthconnectone.org/ and Hannah Mitter, hannahkorea@gmail.com

Cooking for A Healthier Life II: Ranjana Barghava; ranjana@indiancookingclass.com or 773-355-9559

How to Get Growing in Your Congregation: Robert Nevel of KAM II; http://www.kamii.org/ and Paula Anglin GWC Garden 2011/Earth Mother Gardens; mspda@yahoo.com.

Attached is the full day’s agenda:  Feastival Mailer final
Attached is also a replicable bulletin insert: Bulletin Insert_1

Join us on October 10^th from 8:30am to 4:30pm and get re-energized about living healthfully and faithfully.

Register Now!

www.advocatehealth.com/feastival

*$18 registration fee for adults and $9 for school-aged children includes breakfast, lunch, free entry to the zoo and parking.  A full youth, age-appropriate educational track is included in the Feastival.  Facility is wheelchair accessible. Scholarships available; please call Olga at 847-384-3513 if you prefer *not* to use a credit card for registration.  Meal restrictions noted during registration process. Questions? Call Jessica at 847-384-3528.