MCHD Public Health Heroes 2007

Public Health Heroes
2007

MCHD Public Health Heroes | Links | Past Heroes

The Multnomah County Health Department is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s Public Health Hero awards. Please join us in congratulating all of those individuals and groups who were nominated, and applauding those who have been given the distinct honor of winning these prestigious awards. For all of their tireless hours in pursuit of better health and living standards for all people in our community, we salute our…

2007 Public Health Hero Awardees:

Josiah Hill Award for Community Member:

Garland Brown has been a personal fitness trainer in the African American community in Portland for over 10 years. Over this time he has supported hundreds of African Americans in starting and pursuing exercise and personal fitness. A great trainer who works with people of every age and physical ability, including children and elderly, he has trained others who have become fitness trainers - so his influence on the health of the African American community extends well beyond himself.

Rick Seifert – A community organizer, teacher and journalist, he is founder of the Southwest Community Connection newspaper. He has written extensively on the health of the Hillsdale community and helped organize a variety of projects that makes the community healthier: safe routes to schools for kids; creation of the Hillsdale farmer's market; pushing for the development of a town plaza; advocating for affordable housing for the elderly; and a is founding member of the Northwest Media Literacy Center which promotes healthier lifestyles for children and their families.

Multnomah County Employee

Glea Livingston – Glea is the only nurse in the Community Engagement Team, a joint venture with Central City Concern, in which multidisciplinary teams provide intensive case management and other services to 89 chronically homeless, dual diagnosis clients. Glea provides home visits and engages with her clients anywhere she can find them, on the street, in shelters, jail, hospitals, etc. Literally hundreds of people over the last 3 years have relied on her medical support. That support reaches from regularly filling up pill boxes for medication compliance to calling 911 as she spots a medical crisis at a client's apartment. Glea plays a unique, yet integral role in the participant’s lives, as she provides them with in-home health care, medication management, wound care, and other medical services that most participants haven't received in years. Most importantly, Glea connects people to valuable resources, in a time of resource scarcity. Both in and outside of work, Glea fosters relationships with churches, organizations, and groups of people wanting to help.

Business:

Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations (APNBA) – a collective of all the business district associations located in neighborhoods, industrial sanctuaries, town centers, and main streets in Portland, Oregon. A Business District Association is a group of businesses organized to support and promote the commercial area where they operate. Since business district associations are often the glue that holds neighborhoods together, giving them the distinctive identities that characterize Portland, planning with these associations is essential to a meaningful recovery from a public health emergency. APNBA has gone above and beyond civic and APNBA-related responsibilities to ensure that neighborhood businesses are part of public health emergency planning and recovery, allowing the Health Department to reach smaller and medium sized businesses, tailor important planning communications to these businesses and provide general support and input on the overall engagement process.

Website

Community Based Organization:

Loaves & Fishes Centers, Inc. – known as the “Meals on Wheels” people by serving 750,000 meals per year to 6,500 Multnomah County seniors and people with disabilities, Loaves & Fishes do so much more. In 2006 they began Living Well with Chronic Disease and Enhance Fitness, two evidence-based exercise classes and classes for persons with chronic disorders and began building a $3.5 million state of the art kitchen that expanded their capacity, reduced their cost per meal, and positioned them to respond to the aging “baby boomers.” Further, they are a recognized leader and fundraiser, expanding their services when others are retrenching, recruiting and motivating more than 7400 volunteers. This large number of volunteers is vital to provision of public health benefits within our community, as it would not be possible to provide nutritional meals, socialization opportunities, and wellness classes to our senior population without their on-going efforts.

Website

Katie Jeans-Gail Award for Young Heroes:

Tiara Orr, Victoria Hoang, Alena Lam, Katie Sanders and Cynthia Cervantes – This group of Benson High School students recognized a need for school based health center (SBHC) within their school. They wanted to ensure their classmates would be able to access SBHCs if and when services or health care is needed. They did outreach to teachers, arranged class time for presentations, prepared visual materials to assist with their presentation, posted posters around school promoting the health centers, and have been great advocates for SBHCs in general. Their classmates now recognize them as students familiar with SBHC program and services. By promoting SBHCs, this group is promoting public health via teen health care and needed treatment.

Governor John Kitzhaber Public Health Leadership:

American Lung Association of Oregon (ALAO) – exemplifies the spectrum of public health approaches--from individual services, to community organizing, to policy advocacy. Although they work throughout the state, the ALAO has been a particularly important partner of the County’s Tobacco Prevention Program. They have helped promote the passage of smokefree playgrounds for the City of Portland, smokefree transit shelters with TriMet, tobacco free schools, and have partnered on a major project to promote smokefree apartment housing. They have been an important part of the effort to pass 100% smokefree workplace legislation, as well as raising the tobacco tax and restoring full funding for the statewide Tobacco Prevention Program.

Website

Past Heroes:

2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006

Links:
MCHD Public Health Heroes | Multnomah County Health Department | American Public Health Association

Any questions, contact Jill Holden, Multnomah County Health Department
Phone: (503) 988-3674; x29091
Email: jill.m.holden@co.multnomah.or.us

Josiah Hill Award for Community Member:
	Garland Brown has been a personal fitness trainer in the African American community in Portland for over 10 years. Over this time he has supported hundreds of African Americans in starting and pursuing exercise and personal fitness. A great trainer who works with people of every age and physical ability, including children and elderly, he has trained others who have become fitness trainers - so his influence on the health of the African American community extends well beyond himself.
Rick Seifert – A community organizer, teacher and journalist, he is founder of the Southwest Community Connection newspaper. He has written extensively on the health of the Hillsdale community and helped organize a variety of projects that makes the community healthier: safe routes to schools for kids; creation of the Hillsdale farmer's market; pushing for the development of a town plaza; advocating for affordable housing for the elderly; and a is founding member of the Northwest Media Literacy Center which promotes healthier lifestyles for children and their families.