The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) has selected five states and 10 local communities – including Butte-Silver Bow – to collaboratively build healthy communities specifically designed to include people with disabilities.
This project, titled Reaching People with Disabilities through Healthy Communities, seeks state and community collaboration to accelerate disability inclusion policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) improvements that will increase opportunities for healthy eating, physical activity and the prevention of tobacco use for people living with disabilities.
The project is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division Human Development and Disability, Disability and Health Branch and will be lead by NACDD.
“Making states and communities healthier by promoting healthy behaviors, access, and opportunity for all people to eat well, be physically active, and abstain from use of tobacco products has always been a core philosophy of NACDD,” said John Robitscher, NACDD Chief Executive Officer.
Karen Sullivan, Butte-Silver Bow health officer, echoed Robitscher’s comments, in regard to the project’s application in Butte-Silver Bow.
“There are many collaborative agencies in Butte-Silver Bow working to make the community healthier through strategies related to nutrition, physical activity and tobacco use prevention,” said Sullivan. “This project will teach us more about policy related to disability inclusion, and how to improve systems and issues like newly built landscapes to give everyone, including those living with disabilities, the opportunity to be healthy for as long as possible.”
Sullivan, with Butte-Silver Bow Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator Todd Hoar, has begun training in regard to healthy communities and disability inclusion factors.
NACDD initiated the competitive funding request for those states that currently receive funding from the CDC Disabilities and Health Branch, and that were also interested in building local partnerships with two local communities in their state to participate in the project. The project will consist of five guided phases complete with training opportunities, community assessment, and action planning, where they will receive training from some of the nation’s leading experts in Healthy Communities and Disabilities and Health. Communities will work with their respective local community coalitions to achieve public health PSE outcomes, focused on disability inclusion. NACDD is pleased to partner with the National Center for Health, Physical Activity, and Disability and the Lakeshore Foundation for multiple components of the project.
The five selected states and 10 local communities are:
o Montana (Butte-Silver Bow and Helena);
o Iowa (Carroll County and Sioux City);
o New York (Cattaraugus County and Syracuse);
o Ohio (Adams County and Marion County); and
o Oregon (Benton County and Umatilla County).
For more information about this project, please contact Karma Edwards (kedwards@chronicdisease.org). For more information about NACDD, please visit www.ChronicDisease.org.