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Monthly Board Report - March 2001

• Health Unit Responds to Private Drinking Water Concerns
• The Role of the Health Unit on Activities under the Building Code Act
• Tri-Health Initiative
• New Autism Program in the Tri-County
• FLU Campaign Summary
• Eating Disorder Awareness

Tri-Health Initiative

Submitted by Tania Zanelli, Tri-Health Coordinator

The Tri-Health Team is a community coalition with partners from the Heart & Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit, OASIS Institute for Healthy Living, community health centers and many more. The aim of the coalition is to make residents aware of the 3 main risk factors for heart disease:

• Smoking
  
  
• Unhealthy eating
  
  
• Limited or no physical activity

The goal is for residents to quit smoking and/or limit their exposure to second hand smoke, adopt healthy, lower fat eating habits and participate in regular physical activity.

Unfortunately, it is difficult for the coalition to reach all 156,000 residents of Leeds, Grenville and Lanark with its programming. In order to improve the reach, the coalition came up with an innovative idea to benefit as many community members as possible.

For the second year in a row, the Tri-Health Team put out a call for proposals to fund community health promotion programs. Selected programs receive funding in order to support their initiatives. The programs had to focus on one or more of the following areas:

• Targeting youth
  
  
• Promoting physical activity
  
  
• Working towards policy development/supportive environments

Additionally, respondents needed to describe how they planned to sustain the program once funding was used up.

Twenty-eight proposals were received and fourteen were selected for funding. Funded programs include:

• Big Sisters Association of Leeds, Grenville & Lanark-Girls Night/Skills Night
  
  
• Lombardy Youth Basketball - Basketball Program
  
  
• Ottawa Valley Youth Broomball - Broomball Program
  
  
• Lanark County Ontario Works - Physical Activity Program
  
  
• YFC Floor Hockey Club (Smith Falls) - Floor Hockey Program
  
  
• YFC Floor Hockey Club (Brockville) - Floor Hockey Program
  
  
• North Leeds Youth Coordinating Committee - Youth Night at the Y
  
  
• Extreme Adventures - Youth Physical Activity Events
  
  
• North Lanark Community Health Centre - Senior Fitness Instructor Certification
  
  
• Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Lanark - Physical Activity Program
  
  
• St. Joseph's School - Skating Program
  
  
• J.L. Jordan School - Skating Program
  
  
• St. John Bosco School - Skating/Swimming/Curling Program

Overall, $17,000 went toward improving the health and lives of 1300 tri-county residents. Feedback received from many of the program facilitators has been positive. It is hoped that this initiative will occur again next fall.