The legacy lives in us

What an amazing day - the second Presidential inauguration on the day we lift up the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Today is a confirmation of the work we do together as a coalition, as women, as sisters, as daughters and as mothers. In spite of the challenges that we face in the Southeast we are indeed called to step forward and speak change into action.

Our President said it all.


Excerpts from President Barack Obama's Inaugural Speech Today

We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

....

My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to God and country, not party or faction – and we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service.  But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier signs up for duty, or an immigrant realizes her dream.  My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and that fills our hearts with pride.

They are the words of citizens, and they represent our greatest hope.

You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.

You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.

Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright.  With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.

Pilot Project Leaders: Margarita Franco of PASOs

This month we’re featuring Margarita Franco, Director of Community Leadership Development at PASOs a community-based organization hosted at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina.

How long have you been in your current position?  What brought you to the organization and your current work?

I hold a degree in psychology from Colombia, South America and a certificate in Women and Gender studies, and I am currently working on my Master’s degree in Social Work. I have been working with PASOs and the Latino community in South Carolina for the past five years. I help at-risk Latino families, especially women, access the information and resources they need to be healthy. I am passionate about women’s health issues, and I love being a channel that empowers women to realize their potential and make positive decisions that improve their lives.

What are you most excited about or what is your favorite aspect of the Choose Today a Healthy Tomorrow project?

I am excited about the opportunity to work with the Latino community around reproductive health issues because there are some unique needs among this newly settled population in South Carolina. PASOs always tries to work in ways that are culturally appropriate, tailoring messages and approaches to the specific needs and realities of the community. One of our culturally competent approaches is creating teams of community health workers who can bring health information and resources to their peers and neighbors. In the Choose Today a Healthy Tomorrow project, the community health workers will reach their community through a local radio show. I look forward to watching the community health workers learn the new skills needed to educate others about preconception health and be a part of a radio broadcast.

What do you anticipate will be the biggest challenge with this project?

I anticipate that the learning process will be somewhat challenging because most of our community health workers have little or not experience working in the world of radio. Also, we are not sure if members of the community who are invited to call into the radio will want to do so at the beginning.

Can you share any great books, articles, websites, etc, that would help people learn more about using media to reach vulnerable populations (or any great resource you've found that helps with your work)?

The preconception health campaign called “Amor y Salud” (Love and Health) features a radio-soap opera, or radionovela, to reach Latina women in Oregon over the radio. It is featured in both English and Spanish.  There are two radio programs that broadcast out of Mexico that have been helpful guides for our work, “Red Nosotras en el Mundo” (Our network in the world) and CIDHAL. Both are dedicated to progressing the rights of women.

In January, PASOs will publish an article entitled, “Developing a Culturally Appropriate Preconception Health Promotion Strategy for Newly Immigrated Latinos Through a Community-Based Program in South Carolina,” in the American Journal of Health Promotion. It details how PASOs is incorporating best practices to create a new strategy to reach this population with messages on preconception health.

Light in the Darkness

Friends and colleagues,

All of us have been touched by the recent violence in Newtown, CT. There has been for me, however, a sense of shared community across the nation and a true "knowing" that I'm part of something greater than myself. There is a force that unites us that is more powerful than anything else - the love we feel for our babies and children. This love and connection is transcendent - beyond politics, heavy workloads, worries about the future, the fiscal cliff... And in this season of light, it is a beacon of hope for us all as we strive so hard to make sure that we fulfil America's promise to our smallest and most vulnerable citizens.

In this last post for 2012 we want to include an exerpt from President Obama's Speech on December 16th in Newtown. I had the gift of listening to this speech with my teenage daughter - she reached over and held my hand. It was a beautiful moment even as these words brought me to tears as they resonnated so deeply.

As we move into the New Year, there is much to anticipate with joy and much work to do. For now, we wish you peace, time to rest and hope for what is to come.

Warmest Wishes,

Sarah Verbiest
Director - Every Woman Southeast Coalition


"You know, someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside of your body all the time, walking around.


With their very first cry, this most precious, vital part of ourselves, our child, is suddenly exposed to the world, to possible mishap or malice, and every parent knows there’s nothing we will not do to shield our children from harm. And yet we also know that with that child’s very first step and each step after that, they are separating from us, that we won’t -- that we can’t always be there for them.

They will suffer sickness and setbacks and broken hearts and disappointments, and we learn that our most important job is to give them what they need to become self-reliant and capable and resilient, ready to face the world without fear. And we know we can’t do this by ourselves.

It comes as a shock at a certain point where you realize no matter how much you love these kids, you can’t do it by yourself, that this job of keeping our children safe and teaching them well is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, the help of a community and the help of a nation.

And in that way we come to realize that we bear responsibility for every child, because we’re counting on everybody else to help look after ours, that we’re all parents, that they are all our children.

This is our first task, caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?

Can we claim, as a nation, that we’re all together there, letting them know they are loved and teaching them to love in return? Can we say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose?

I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days, and if we’re honest with ourselves, the answer’s no. We’re not doing enough. And we will have to change."  President Barack Obama

Pilot Project Leaders: Mirine Dye of Urban Health Partnerships

This month we’re featuring Mirine Dye, a Program Manager for Urban Health Partnerships and new member of the Every Woman Southeast Coalition.

How long have you been in your current position?

I joined Urban Health Partnerships (UHP) and our corporate arm Urban Health Solutions (UHS) in May of 2012. This EWSE grant project is my first venture with our non-profit arm, UHP.

What brought you to the organization and your current work?

The UHP Executive Director, Anamarie Garces, and I teamed up a few years ago to represent our graduate school of public health (Florida International University) in a Student Scholar Competition, which we placed third Campus wide. I then had the opportunity to put together a team to participate in the American Public Health Association Maternal Child Health Leadership Institute and felt Anamarie and I would be great team members. Our state project for Florida involved intersecting public health preparedness, epidemiology and maternal child health. We gained national recognition and remained in contact over the years. She reached out to me after forming her company and invited me to consider participating as a collaborator, and my grant funded position at the time was winding down so the timing was perfect. I came on board to assist with any projects that needed more staff, and was encouraged to seek grants in our areas of interest.

What are you most excited about for the Transportation Access Throughout the Life Course project?

I am most excited about the opportunity to creatively intersect two areas of public health, which usually do not get much attention together. Transportation and particularly active transportation (walking, biking, safe streets as well as public transportation) have been increasingly seen as not only a public health issue, but a public policy and urban planning focus. When we consider “access to care” usually the number of clinics or the number of providers and the cost is what comes to mind. We are looking at a broader view of access to care, meaning, how do women age 15-44 (and men) get to the clinics which are targeting them with reproductive and preconception care services? Miami-Dade has several areas of concern within this age group relating to reproductive health, and we want to see how do they access the services which are offered, and what improvements can be made. Are there plenty of bus routes or safe sidewalks? Are the areas shaded and comfortable for women and families in the Miami heat? What about bike routes for men and women to access the clinics easily? Are clinics and clients aware of these options? How easy is it to access information or plan your trip without a car? These are the questions we hope to answer with our project.

What do you anticipate will be the biggest challenge with this project?

I think we will have a couple of challenges; the first challenge being how can we engage our non-traditional health partners in this topic? We have reached out to our planners, engineers and transportation partners and we are at the beginning stages of the formation of the steering committee. I know we will have to sell them in the first meeting in order to ensure long-term participation and interest. The second challenge will be to create a marketing outreach campaign to translate our findings, and get the information into the hands of those who plan clinics and can influence street and transportation improvements.

Can you share any great books, articles, websites, etc, that would help people learn more about urban planning or transportation and the intersection with health?

Although I was not involved with this particular UHP project, I feel that the Broward Complete Streets Initiative was particularly influential in my recommendation to seek grant support for our Transportation Throughout the Life Course project. I would definitely recommend visiting the website BrowardCompleteStreets.org which then has other resources available as well. We have also set up a website for our project, and hope to list many references to help both transportation and maternal child health groups understand the significance of taking MCH out of a silo, and inserting MCH into the bigger picture of urban health and planning: Transportation4Families.org.

I am currently reading Making Places Healthy: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being and Sustainability, edited by Andrew Dannenberg, Howard Frumkin and Richard Jackson, and would recommend it for a practical, yet comprehensive, systems-level look at the built environment and health.

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Alabama

One of our featured leaders from Alabama is Janice M. Smiley, MSN, RN, Director of the State Perinatal Program at the Alabama Department of Public Health. She took some time to talk about the Perinatal Program and to discuss some challenges and opportunities she faces in Alabama.

How long have you been in your current position? 

I have been with the Alabama Department of Public Health for 16 years. However, I have been in my current position, the Director of the State Perinatal Program, since July 2007. The mission of the State Perinatal Program is to identify and recommend strategies that will effectively decrease infant mortality and morbidity.

What is your favorite thing/task/part of your work? 

The favorite part of my job is educating and raising awareness of healthy lifestyle behaviors and their correlation to overall health and well-being. I enjoy talking with men and women men informing them that the choices they make today may play a role in their future and the future of their children, encouraging them to plan their lives and not let life just happen. I get excited when “the light goes on” they understand and began to consider some of their choices and make decisions to change their behaviors and/or to engage in better behaviors. Also, I particularly want to help them understand their family medical history and the potential of those conditions to impact their future health.

What is your biggest challenge? 

Not enough time to devote to the many tasks that are important and need my attention.

Why are you involved in Every Woman Southeast? 

I am involved because I believe that preconception and interconception health are the areas where we need to focus our attention if we are to improve the perinatal health of our nation and thus the infant mortality rate. One contributing factor to infant mortality and poor birth outcomes in Alabama is the health of the mother before and between pregnancies. The women of Region IV face many of the same problems and issues related to women’s health and wellness. Within Every Woman Southeast there are many experts, people with vast knowledge, programs, as well as projects that are going on within other states that we could learn from to improve the health of women. Every Woman Southeast provides an atmosphere for sharing and disseminating information about successful projects, lessons learned from programs, and proven strategies. Thus Every WomanSoutheast creates an environment to help each state, not reinvent the wheel, but identify and implement strategies to improve the health of women, infants, and families in the southeast.

If you had a million dollars what would you do with it? 

Provide healthcare and education to men and women with chronic conditions who want to improve their lives and health. Provide coaches for families of low social economic status to help them improve their lives and the lives of their children.

Anything else you’d like to say? 

Thank you to Sarah and her team. It is truly a pleasure to work with and learn from all the members of Every Woman Southeast.

Keeping our social network alive and thriving

If you’ve been reading our newsletters or following our activity for a while, you know we’re all about forming effective connections throughout the southeast. One way that most of us connect in this digital age is through the Internet, specifically social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and now Pinterest. Spreading news and information through the web is the quickest and most efficient way to communicate—but is anyone listening?

Research tells us that the majority of social media users friend someone because they know them in real life—meaning real life friendships drive online relationships. However, advertising and other things competing for our attention can get in the way of effective online connections. For example, Facebook has recently rolled out a new program that purposefully limits your reach to your friends or “fans” (depending on whether you are using Facebook as a person or a page), unless you pay a premium to promote your updates. This means that only a small fraction of your friends or followers are receiving your updates in their feeds. Now, more than ever, it’s important to spread your social media networks through many channels and to make meaningful connections throughout the Web.

So, let’s connect with each other! By “liking” and “following” each other on social media sites we’ll strengthen our brands and reinforce our inter-connection. Whether it is a personal profile or a professional one, we want to know where you’ve been spending your time on the Internet. Please fill out this short survey.

As a “thank you” for participating in the survey we’ll link to your agency’s or organization’s professional profiles (Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube) on your state’s page and we’ll reciprocally follow you back on our social networks (currently Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest—but that may change!).

Fill out the survey today! And stay tuned for the survey results – we’ll post them in our next newsletter. 

MCH Leaders in the Southeast: Alabama

D'Ann Somerall, DNP, FNP-BC, Division Manager and Family Nurse Practitioner Program Manager at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing also took the time to talk to us about her work in Alabama and she was happy to answer our featured interview questions for Every Woman Southeast.

How long have you been in your current position? 

I have taught at the School of Nursing for 10 years, but only in this role for one month. :)

What is your favorite thing/task/part of your work? 

I love working with students. The Family Nurse Practitioner Program program is a distance accessible program meaning that I need to be as creative as possible to provide the learning content in a manner which will stimulate the learning for the student, since the students are physically not in the classroom to draw on the enthusiasm of the instructor.

What is your biggest challenge? 

Catching up on my emails on a daily basis; balancing work, family and fun! (I'm a bit of a workaholic).

Why are you involved in Every Woman Southeast?

My initial Master of Science in Nursing lead to an advanced degree as a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner. I believe a very important role that I have as a Nurse Practitioner, is to teach young women about preconception health - not just when they are ready to conceive, but what to do prior to that day in order to have a health life and a healthy baby. I volunteer with an outreach program in a low income county in Alabama where I present a program to 6th-8th graders on reproductive health and living well now, so that one day they can have healthy babies and they can have healthy lives. Every Woman Southeast is the perfect venue for me to develop connections, learn advanced information and develop partnerships in order to continue to promote preconception health with my graduate students and others.

If you had a million dollars what would you do with it? 

Take all my family members to Hawaii! After a relaxing vacation - start a free clinic for care of patients who pledge to make a change in their health by providing health care, offering pro-health classes, financial support, and babysitting services so mom's can work!

Anything else you’d like to say?

It has been a joy to serve with this group of fantastic group! Sarah is the most organized person I have ever worked with! Her grad students are awesome!