Have you heard of the Green County Healthy Community Coalition? This is a group made up of over 50 organizations, all working together to improve the health of Green County!
The coalition is co-chaired by representatives from the Green County Public Health Department and Monroe Clinic. Other groups represented in the coalition include local governmental agencies, community organizations, educational institutions, and businesses!
The COVID-19 pandemic has made meeting up and working on projects a little difficult for the coalition, but we have been utilizing technology to stay connected! Prior to the pandemic our coalition hosted events including the “Let’s Get Moo-ving Green County” Wellness Week, the Family Fun Triathlon in the summer of 2019, and other health and wellness events. Even during the pandemic we hosted “Self-Care Bingo” — an at home, family friendly activity to help community members take care of themselves during this difficult year.
There are four “sub-groups” in the coalition, that focus on specific health subjects. Currently there is a mental health group, substance misuse group, food security & breastfeeding, and physical activity. The smaller groups work on projects specific to their topic. These groups are determined by which areas of health Green County needs some improvement in. Every three years the coalition goes through an assessment to find out what those areas that need improvement are!
This year it’s time for another assessment to find out the health needs of Green County. This assessment is called a Community Health Needs Assessment (or CHNA) and communities all over the country do these types of assessments to help improve health in their area. During the months ahead our Green County Healthy Community Coalition will work together to gather information about what’s going well and what’s not going so well for the health of our county.
Doing a CHNA is a big and important task, the results of this endeavor will help guide the efforts of our collation for the next few years. That’s why we want the help of Green County community members on this project. In February we’ll being releasing a survey for community members to fill out, and we’re asking you to fill it out! This survey will primarily be available online and hard copies will be offered at a few locations throughout the county. Many of our coalition partners will be sending the survey out to their employees or organizations members. To find the survey, and more information about the survey — you can check out coalition’s website —
https://www.greencohcc.org/ and “like” us on Facebook. Throughout the month of February information on the survey and the survey itself will be available!
By completing this survey you’ll be making your voice heard. Your input is extremely valuable and will help guide our coalition’s work! Thank you in advance for taking the time to help improve the health of our community.
— Bridget Craker is the Public Health Educator for the Green County Public Health Department and can be reached at bcraker@greengountywi.org or 608-328-9509.
