April 20, 2003 - Healthy DuPage: Donell Bullock served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in the West African country of Equatorial Guinea
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April 20, 2003 - Healthy DuPage: Donell Bullock served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in the West African country of Equatorial Guinea
Donell Bullock served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in the West African country of Equatorial Guinea
Donell Bullock served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in the West African country of Equatorial Guinea
Donell Bullock has been the Executive Director of Healthy DuPage since our inception in early 1999. He has served as a volunteer in the Peace Corps in the West African country of Equatorial Guinea. He also worked with the domestic Peace Corps, AmeriCorp in the area of health and human services supervising 33 health service corps members. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Social Work from Michigan State University, and a Master's Degree in Public Health from the University of Illinois.
History
Our origins lie in the international Healthy Communities initiative that was launched in 1986 by the World Health Organization. The World Health Organization focused on health promotion and the prevention of disease; just three years later the torch was lit in the United States when the US Healthy Cities Program was formed. The scope of this initiative was broadened to include not only physical health, but mental and spiritual health as well. In 1993 the First International Conference on Healthy Cities and Communities was held, and by 1999 DuPage county residents, government and business and healthcare leaders launched our own Healthy DuPage to address a county-wide Healthy Communities effort.
Healthy DuPage has organized itself into a 20- member Board of Directors with 550 community stakeholders. Organized in this manner, the Board is linked directly to a future envisioned by the community. In conversations held with stakeholders two pointed questions have been asked:
1. What are the factors that contribute to the quality of life in DuPage County?
2. How can we create an even better quality of life?
Healthy DuPage is a grassroots, regional planning and implementation organization created by individuals who care about the quality of life in our communities. Not only does this group address the physical health needs in DuPage County, but it identifies and addresses other broad health issues related to socioeconomic, mental and environmental dimensions of life in our communities.
Our Successes
On January 8, 1999 the new Healthy DuPage convened a community-wide "visioning" conference. Despite a snow blizzard that day, 130 concerned citizens (called Stakeholders) attended this meeting to begin developing a vision for a healthier DuPage County. Those who attended committed to meeting once a month throughout that year to examine community strengths and weaknesses, develop a shared vision by consensus, and to find ways to improve residents' quality of life for future decades.
As Healthy DuPage sprints through its third year, we are doing what we set out to do. During the past three years Healthy DuPage has grown to over 550 Stakeholders who have shared ideas, concerns and expertise to make DuPage County a healthier place in which to live and work. We have incorporated as a nonprofit entity with a dynamic and involved Board of Directors and several working committees to take care of the business of running an efficient grassroots organization.
By the end of our first year, Healthy DuPage Stakeholders not only identified seven major areas of concern that impact the quality of life in our county, but created initiatives to address these areas. Each initiative has a volunteer committee (Action Work Team) that maintains the focus on the task at hand. The seven different initiatives are:
* Affordable Housing
* Character and Values
* Community Resource Information System
* Ensuring Healthy Futures
* Philanthropy and Volunteerism
* Strengthening Families
* Transportation Services
Today, each of these Action Work Teams have operational business plans in place. Four of the seven are currently living the mission of their plans through funded projects that have been designed to measurably improve the quality of life for the residents of DuPage County: Character and Values, Community Resource Information Systems, Ensuring Healthy Futures, and Philanthropy and Volunteerism.
Community Initatives and Action Teams
We invite you to consider the following mission statements and accompanying initiatives that are integral to the respective business plans of each Healthy DuPage Action Work Team.
Affordable Housing. Mission: To insure that there is an adequate supply of affordable housing to rent or purchase for all individuals who live, work or have retired in DuPage County. Status: Initiative is still in planning stage. (Download Full Document)
Character and Values. Mission: To form a county-wide Character Development Coalition to encourage, facilitate and coordinate the adoption, implementation and evaluation of character development programs throughout DuPage County. The first phase of this initiative was to build a coalition. This has been complete. The second phase involves establishing a measurement and evaluation system of character education programs to determine the validity of outcomes. Status: First phase was funded with a $20,000 grant from Central DuPage Health Community Reinvestment Grant Program. Second phase will require a sum of $100,000 to accomplish all objectives. Funding pending. (Download Full Document)
Community Resource Information System ("C.R.I.S.") Mission: To be the single, integrated, authoritative repository of information on "human services" in DuPage County through a customer-friendly "search and click" database. This initiative was created in partnership with DuPage County Government. The county government provided the technical expertise, and Healthy DuPage provided the funded marketing person to demonstrate and train relevant publics in the use and upkeep of the program. Status: Funded with a grant of $50,000 from Community Memorial Foundation.
Ensuring Healthy Futures. Mission: To provide access to medical services for those individuals and families in DuPage County who would otherwise lack access for economic reasons. Healthy DuPage has been a member of a partnership with the area healthcare community and government that designed and is implementing Access DuPage. Access DuPage will provide access to primary care physicians, laboratory and radiological services as well as prescription drugs. Services to patients are scheduled to begin in January 2002. Status: Funded by many contributions from DuPage county hospitals, government agencies, foundations and the private sector for 1,800,000.
Philanthropy and Volunteerism. Mission: To improve the civility of our community through citizens- helping- citizens by donating time, talent and money. This initiative is a multi-phase project: to hire a philanthropy/ volunteer project manager; to survey the large corporate and nonprofit worlds to gather data about giving histories and the current unmet needs of agencies; to convene corporate and nonprofit leadership in discussions to increase giving and volunteerism. This is a partnership between the county and Healthy DuPage. Status: Funded by DuPage County Government, Division of Human Services for $50,000 and McCormick Foundation for $25,000.
Strengthening Families. Mission: To mobilize people, grassroots organizations, institutions and systems to support families in their efforts to raise healthy children. Healthy DuPage is working in partnership with the DuPage Federation for Human Services Reform. This initiative is a two-phase project: to assess, coordinate and foster existing efforts in DuPage County to support families in their efforts to raise healthy children; to expand successful home visitation programs in the county so that every family with children aged 0-3 will be offered home visitation services or other resources. Status: Initiative is seeking a sum of $50,000 to accomplish phase one. Funding pending. (Download Full Document)
Transportation Services. Mission: To meet the needs of those persons (seniors, disabled, indigent) without the ability to own/drive automobiles and to provide alternative transportation modes to single occupancy vehicles. This initiative is a partnership between Healthy DuPage and DuPage County. The mutual commitment lies in the newly-developed paratransit system linking many of the transportation entities in the county. Healthy DuPage will effectively market the new paratransit system endorsed by PACE and DuPage County Government. Status: Initiative is seeking a sum of $25,000 to accomplish goal. Funding pending. (Download Full Document)
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Story Source: Healthy DuPage
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Equatorial Guinea; Health Promotion
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