True or False?

1. Poor adults are 5 times more likely to be in bad health than adults in the highest-income group.

2. Children in poor families are about 7 times more likely to be in poor or fair health than those in highest-income families.

3. Poor adults are two times more likely to have diabetes and 50% more likely to die from heart disease.

4. U.S. businesses lose more than $1 trillion a year in productivity due to chronic illness.

5. Per person, the U.S. spends more than twice the average of other industrialized countries on health care – 16% of our GDP in 2006 – yet has some of the worst health outcomes?

6. Although typically poorer, recent Latino immigrants are healthier than the average American. However, those who have lived in the U.S. five years or longer are 50% more likely to have high blood pressure and almost 40% more likely to be obese.

The answer to all is true…. Research links overall health to economic stability, education, safe and affordable housing, nutrition/food security, and other factors. Find out more at the Bridges Into Health workshop!

Can you help?

We have Getting Ahead Graduates and community members who have asked for financial assistance so they can attend our Feb. 24th Bridges Into Health workshop.

So we are asking you for help with full and partial scholarships.  The $50 workshop fee includes materials, refreshments and lunch.

Your support for $50, $25, $10… will help us get people to attend six hours of outstanding information from a national presenter, Terie Dreussi-Smith.

To donate, just click on the donate button here on our webpage, or drop a check in the mail. Thanks for your help!

9 to 3 p.m. each day (registration starts at 8 a.m.) Both workshops are at the new St. Vincent DePaul Society building at 520 Crescent Ave, South Bend 46617.  Parking across the street.

Each workshop only costs $50 and includes materials, refreshments and lunch, and six hours of outstanding information from a national presenter, Terie Dreussi-Smith. Some partial scholarships are available.  Space is limited and registration ends Feb. 22, so don’t delay! And if you are an HR professional, you can receive HRCI credit for the Strategic area!

Register for both workshops here:   http://www.unitedwayec.org/nrn-workshops.htm

Terie Dreussi-Smith, M.A.Ed. co-authored Bridges Out of Poverty and is an expert community alcohol/ drug treatment and prevention.  She presents nationally and assists communities to embed Bridges Out of Poverty concepts in redesigning policies and services for families and youth in generational poverty.

Questions?  Call us at 574.339.1232.

Human Resource Professionals:

Did you know you can earn

Five Strategic HRCI units for

the Bridges Into Health Workshop?

Poverty, poor health and rising health care costs are linked.  How do we address this growing problem?  If you want to learn more, than you’ll want to come to our Bridges Into Health Seminar.

Bridges Into Health dovetails the Bridges Out of Poverty concepts and tools with the growing body of health inequities research. Economic class affects all aspects of health and health care. To improve this, strategies must address economic class and other social determinants.

The workshop includes a continuum of policy and practice critical to improving health among the disadvantaged. Research links overall health to economic stability, education, safe and affordable housing, nutrition/food security, and other factors. Meaningful learning tasks, direct teaching, videos, and large-group dialogue are integrated into this workshop.

Bridges Into Health:

• · Highlights how social capital and social interactions can be redesigned to improve health outcomes
• · Provides an overview of research that indicates “poverty is making us sick”
• · Introduces a dialogue on how Robert Sapolsky’s “Theory of Social Coherence” is limiting access to health care within our health care systems and community health initiatives
• · Illustrates tools to address health inequities

The workshop is for community leaders from all sectors, as well as clinical staff at all levels in the private nonprofit and public health sectors. There will be a two-hour Bridges Out of Poverty overview from a fresh perspective embedded in the workshop.

Saturday, February 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

$50 includes coffee, lunch, book and materials

 (Registration opens at 8 a.m.) Space is limited – register early!

Bridges Into Health:  Strategies to Reduce Inequities and Improve Health Outcomes

Poverty negatively impacts health and health care costs.  Find out why and what we can do about it.

• Highlights how social capital and social interactions can be redesigned to improve health outcomes
• Provides an overview of research that indicates “poverty is making us sick”
• Introduces a dialogue on how Robert Sapolsky’s “Theory of Social Coherence” is limiting access to health care within our health care systems and community health initiatives
• Illustrates tools to address health inequities

The Conversation Continues at our Bridge Builder Meeting, Friday, Feb. 3rd from noon to 1:30 p.m.    Join us!

Public transportation has a profound effect on people’s ability to get and keep jobs, as well as get to school, make appointments, and shop. When the next round of proposed service cuts were announced, including most of route #2, we felt it was again time to call attention to this important issue.

On Monday, January 30th, we’ll find out Transpo’s decision at their 4 p.m. meeting (at their headquarters).  Regardless of what it is, as a community, we need to find a way to better utilize the transportation system we have for people with no other alternatives.

When we surveyed Graduates at the January Networking Meeting, 84% of the 25 people said they would ride the bus more if the ran more frequently.

Please join us at our Bridge Builder meeting this Friday, Feb. 3rd from noon to 1:30 to discuss next steps. We’ll meet at the Monroe Community Circle Center at 526 Western Avenue. Moving forward, there are many people who want to help work out a better solution, and we’ll make a plan to keep the conversation going.

We’ve met with the Mayor and Transpo Board and staff, as well as attended and testified at the Transpo hearings. At the last one, there were at least 75 people there — bus riders and non-bus riders — speaking out on the importance of keeping the routes and frequencies.  One bus driver noted the important places that will no longer be accessible if #2 is cut: the Natatorium, the Martin Luther King Center, the new ND Center, as well as many neighborhoods.

We wrote a viewpoint editorial with Charlie Thompson, Executive Director of St. Vincent DePaul Society.  Others wrote letters to the editor (see Barbara Jung’s below). Please keep sharing your opinion with the community, Transpo, as well as City and County Council members.