The Delta Health Alliance

Education Strengthens the Southgate Community by Karen Matthews

carawaydesigns — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:40:57 +0000

Academic research has demonstrated over and over again that one of the barriers to economic and education progress in low income neighborhoods in lack of information about opportunities within the larger community. Traditional media just doesn’t work in these neighborhoods. To respond to this challenge one project of the Indianola Promise Community is to take the organizations and opportunities directly to neighborhood residents. We held the first of these information fairs April 27 at the Southgate neighborhood in Indianola. Fourteen civic, social services and health organizations served as hosts for the event, including the State Department of Health, Carver Elementary PTA, the local Parents as Teachers group, and the Indianola Youth Council. Residents learned about college scholarships, participated in surveys about how to improve Indianola, and got to meet agency leaders face to face. Close to 100 people from the neighborhood participated in the fair. Kudos to the IPC and Delta Health Alliance staff for putting together the “Fit Day” and information fairs. Just one of the many ways the Promise Community is breaking down barriers to bring the community together.

Fit Day in Indianola by Karen Matthews

carawaydesigns — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:25:02 +0000

An Indianola JA volunteer, DHA staff members and Indianola youth play tug of war.

Last Saturday, the Indianola Promise Community and the Mayor’s Health Council sponsored “Fit Day” in the Southgate neighborhood. Encouraging children and parents to become more physically active and increase their intake of nutritious foods was the goal of the day long series of events. Mayor Steve Rosenthal and his wife, IPC staff, and other community leaders served as volunteers in distributing healthy snacks and providing information about the need to stay fit. More than 129 children participated in outdoor games, including football with members of the Police Department. The event was held at the neighborhood’s KaBOOM! park, which was built by community volunteers in August 2010 thanks to a partnership formed by IPC, the city, and KaBOOM!, Inc. The park looks as nice today as it did after the park build in 2010, thanks to the hard work the community is putting into maintaining the area. Just one more way Southgate residents are building a healthier neighborhood.

What are the signs of breast cancer? by Dr. Richardson

carawaydesigns — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:49:33 +0000

What are the signs of breast cancer? Some signs and symptoms of breast cancer include swelling, redness, increase in size or a change in shape, nipple discharge other than breast milk, general pain and lumps or nodes in the breast. If you have any of these symptoms you should contact your primary care provider. Testing may include a breast ultrasound, mammograms or biopsy. Early detection saves lives!!

Indianola Youth Council by Karen Matthews

carawaydesigns — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:22:40 +0000

Indianola’s middle and high school students are making a buzz in the community thanks to the newly formed Indianola Youth Council. What started as a couple of concerned high school students wanting to bring positive changes to the community has now grown into a formal organization made up of students from grades eight through twelve. The Indianola Promise Community (IPC) supports the council by providing staff support for the council’s three priority areas: civic engagement, service learning, and proper etiquette.

Aside from working on the issue priorities, council members use their time together to share information about their own lives, such as ACT preparation tips, scholarship opportunities, and college planning. One of the student members, Hoskin Evan Griffin, remarked recently, “I hope the council can help students develop a sense of pride for Indianola and create the feeling of wanting to give back and make the community better.”

The Indianola Youth Council is led by youth for youth, with support from the council’s Adult Advisory Board, consisting of Mayor Steve Rosenthal and other community leaders and advocates. To be eligible for membership in the Indianola Youth Council, students must be in grades eight through twelve and either live in or attend schools in Indianola. The Council members meet bi-weekly on Saturdays at the IPC office. If you are interested in learning more, please contact Anthony Powell at (662) 686-3930.

Mississippi on the Cutting Edge

carawaydesigns — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:07:22 +0000

Mississippi has one of only 12 promise neighborhood grants the federal government has funded throughout the country. Here in the Mississippi Delta, it’s called the Indianola Promise Community, is a major project of Delta Health Alliance, and is designed to focus a number of different programs and interventions in a coordinated way to improve the education opportunities for the children of Indianola. Our Mississippi initiative is a leader in developing software that tracks the use and performance of all the programs, allows our partners to access program data and make referrals among the different programs, and identifies new opportunities for assistance we may need to provide. We have learned that collaboration among partners in a major project like this is the only way it can be effective over the long term, and the software is the tool that facilitates that coordination and working together. Instead of operating in silos, we are all operating as a team. As a result, promise neighborhoods from across the country are calling to learn these software tools and how they ended up in the Mississippi Delta. Kudos to our partners and staff for making this happen.

Books for Sunflower County Children by Karen Matthews

carawaydesigns — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:48:53 +0000

A free book for any Sunflower County child between the ages of 0-5. That’s how the Imagination Library program hopes to encourage parents reading to their children and then children reading on their own. Imagination Library is a joint initiative between the Dolly Parton Foundation and Delta Health Alliance. Once a child’s family signs up for the program, he or she will be mailed an age-appropriate book each month until the start of kindergarten. Delta Health Alliance had operated the Imagination Library program throughout the Delta for several years, but federal budget cuts forced us to bring it to an end. Now, thanks to a new Department of Education grant, we can resume our partnership with Dolly Parton’s Foundation. An independent evaluation of this program found a significant correlation between participation and stronger family home reading habits, and improved scores in a variety of kindergarten readiness tests for many participants.

Sunflower County children between 0-5 are eligible. Children under the age of 5 who were previously enrolled in the program will automatically begin receiving books in May. New applicants may download the registration form online at www.deltahealthalliance.org and click on the Indianola Promise Community logo (IPC) or by visiting Imagination Library website at www.imaginationlibrary.com. For further assistance or information, participants may also call 662-390-3853.

Indianola Parents & Schools by Karen Matthews

carawaydesigns — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:03:13 +0000

Two years ago, the Indianola Promise Community (IPC) formed a partnership with the Jackson chapter of Parents for Public Schools to create a network of parents with children at Lockard and Carver Elementary Schools. The goal was to equip these parents with the knowledge, skills and motivation to work with teachers and administrators to improve their childrens’ education and to make relevant changes to district and school policies. A year later, both schools have active and growing PTAs.

The Carver PTA has hosted an “Adopt a Child” project, sponsored the AmeriCorps Building a Better ME program, helped with registration, and organized volunteers to landscape the school grounds. Carver Principal William Murphy had this to say about the recent landscaping: “When I arrived this morning, I was blown away with the work that was done by our PTA. From the sign down to the landscaping and planting in the various areas, I commend you all on a job well done. Acts like these are instrumental in making the school a place where all can be proud and feel safe.”

The Lockard PTA has sponsored National Safety Week and provided parents with information on bike safety, car seat safety, and fire safety in which over 600 students received gifts and information on safety and prevention. During Take Your Family to School Week, the PTA hosted family reading night in which a Disney character read books to children.

Parents absent from the decision-making table at their schools make it difficult to have buy-in with those decisions and make it more difficult to connect the academic work at home with the academic work at the school. Creating PTAs and engaging parents in the process is a first step toward changing a school’s culture.

Indianola Youth Council by Karen Matthews

carawaydesigns — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:40:04 +0000

Early last Saturday morning, some of Indianola’s brightest students participated in the first meeting of the newly formed Indianola Youth Council. Ten junior and senior high students from local public and private schools make up the council, which will advise the mayor and other public officials on matters ranging from community service opportunities, ways to improve education, recreational needs,and similar topics of interest to Indianola youth.

Indianola Mayor Steve Rosenthal and other members of his administration attended the first meeting and pledged to listen and work with this new group of students who want to become engaged with their community. The group is excited about coming together to learn and share with each other, and at the meeting they decided that two of their priority areas would be civic engagement and service learning.

The Youth Council is one of many programs of the Indianola Promise Community, a project of Delta Health Alliance. To be eligible for membership in the Indianola Youth Council, students must be in grades eight through twelve and either live or attend schools in Indianola. A Youth Council leader will be picked to represent each school at the next meeting, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 6 at 12 noon. The Council members will meet biweekly on Saturdays at the Indianola Promise Community office. If you are interested in learning more about the Youth Council, please contact Anthony Powell at (662) 686-3930.

IPC Summer Camp Update by Karen Matthews

carawaydesigns — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:13:49 +0000

For the last three years, the Indianola Promise Community (IPC), a Delta Health Alliance initiative, has partnered with and provided funding to 26 organizations to host summer camps for over 1,300 children. The summer of 2013 will be no different. Requests for Proposals have gone out, soliciting ideas from area organizations. This year, the focus is on improving literacy, with camp goals including vocabulary development, literature appreciation, reading comprehension, and generally minimizing the loss of academic skills over the summer.

On March 18, IPC sponsored a technical assistance workshop in advance of the April 12 due date for proposals. Speakers included Dr. Earl Watkins, the conservator over the Indianola Public School District, and Frankie Blackmon, the district’s curriculum coordinator, both of whom discussed the importance of literacy and its contribution to the success of children in all academic subjects. Dr. Cheryl Cummins and Dr. Merideth Van Name, from Delta State University’s College of Education, shared techniques and strategies to engage and involve children in reading and vocabulary development. Josh Davis, Delta Health Alliance’s Vice President of External Affairs, gave the participants tips on how to network and partner with other organizations. Beth McCullers, Delta Health Alliance’s Grant Administrator, discussed the application process and evaluation.

Once proposals have been submitted, they will be reviewed by independent evaluators and graded using a uniform scoring process. On May 1, we will announce the top scorers and the summer camps that will get funded.

From the Classroom to the Market by Karen Matthews

carawaydesigns — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 15:00:39 +0000

There’s a New Garden in the Delta! It’s called the Wiley Community Garden and its located at Delta State University, thanks to the property donated by the Wiley family in memory of Roy Wiley, a DSU professor emeritus. At the Wiley Community Garden, DSU Education majors are gaining valuable teaching experience in integrating classroom curricula with hands-on gardening techniques. And all of the produce the students grow is being sold at the Cleveland Farmer’s Market.

The program works because of the partnerships involving Delta Health Alliance, Delta Fresh Foods Farm to School, Cleveland Farmer’s Market, and numerous departments at Delta State University, including, Education, Biological & Physical Sciences, Art, Nutrition & Dietetics, School of Nursing and Facilities Management.

It’s another example of how innovative leadership and building partnerships in the Delta can move us forward.