Although the Fairfax community consistently ranks as one of the
healthiest in the Commonwealth, there are still far too many
people who have limited access to health care and the resources
that support healthy choices. In 2008, the Health Department
brought together a broad and diverse coalition of residents,
county agencies, businesses, faith leaders, schools,
nonprofits and health care providers‚ a group that would
become the Partnership for a Healthier Fairfax. Over the next
few years, the Partnership identified the root causes of
poor health in our community and developed a plan to improve
community health. Priority areas of the Community Health
Improvement Plan, or CHIP, included: Healthy and Safe
Physical Environments, increasing opportunities for
physical activity, increasing access to healthy foods,
reducing tobacco use and exposure to second hand smoke,
expanding the health workforce, improving access to health
services and data integration. Since adopting the plan five
years ago, the Partnership has been the champion for many
policy, system and environmental changes that aim to improve
health outcomes for all within our community. This collective
work is known as the Live Healthy Fairfax initiative. By
working together, we are transforming our community.
We had a lot of parents and athletic groups that were
worried about the effects of second hand smoke. They
approached us, we worked with the Board of Supervisors, the
athletic council and the Park Authority took the initiative to
be the first ones to declare all the parks as smoke free zones...
tobacco free zones, which was fantastic. It promotes a healthy
lifestyle. It doesn't expose the kids to second hand smoke,
and it's just a good thing for the community overall. So we
were very very happy to be the catalyst in the tobacco free,
smoke free initiative as a result of that of course schools
followed along with Community and Neighborhood Services. And
because of the overall effect of all of us adopting that policy,
we now have over thirteen hundred public spaces that are
smoke free, tobacco free zones; our amphitheaters, our trail
ways, our RECenters, our athletic ball fields.
Eleven years ago I joined Britepaths which was formerly
known as Our Daily Bread, and I was the food manager and as the
food manager I quickly became conscious of how difficult it
was for pantries to provide diverse and healthy food for our
families. And in 2016 I was asked to chair the Fairfax Food
Council, which led me to go to the meetings for the Partnership
for a Healthier Fairfax and at the Partnership for a Healthier
Fairfax meeting, I got to participate in the Community
Health Improvement Plan. And that was another awakening for
me because it's not just food. It's being able to walk
in a neighborhood. There's just so many different elements
that help a family not only be safe and healthy but be able to
live in a community where everyone has access to the same
privileges. It makes me so happy that we can hand out vouchers
for the farmers markets so our families can get fresh food.
They can make their own choices to go to the grocery store. We
have healthy cooking workshops that we walk over to the farmers
market and I learn a lot when I go with them. They'll show me
fruits and vegetables that I've never seen or heard of.
But it should be everybody's choice to eat healthy. Now being
on the Fairfax Food Council I hear all the same voices of how
I have felt over the years and its so powerful and it's making
a huge impact in the county and we hear more and more from
different partners that want to come and attend our meetings.
Our meeting are full, impactful and exciting to come to.
A trauma informed approach means that we're recognizing the
research and biology of how trauma affects the brain and the
body, and then applying that to the way we design and deliver
services and systems for children and families. So the
Trauma Informed Community Network here in Fairfax County
is an effort to bring together partners to coordinate services
and share information and spread these ideas of trauma informed
practice. It's a really exciting opportunity to get to
be a part of that locally. Through the work of the
partnership, thousands of people have been trained in trauma
informed practices and now that training is actually required
for some staff at many agencies. We've also moved towards
secondary trauma and that's recognizing and supporting the
human services providers themselves as they do this work
with families and we've expanded beyond the training
too, to do technical assistance and raise awareness and support
one another. There's even a book club.
During the development of the CHIP, we learned that we needed
to provide data on health behaviors and health outcomes
and make it more accessible to the community. The dashboard has
a wealth of information, you can find it at
livehealthyfairfax.org. It helps you understand what that
information means and why it's important. It provides
information that's not directly labeled health
information. It provides information on social factors
that, like education, or income or housing or transportation,
the environment, that affect health. And it also provides
information on where in the community there are people whose
health outcomes are not as good as they should be. And that
helps policy makers and others who are volunteers and others
work to help make sure that health equity is attainable for
everyone.
As we embark on a new five-year Community Health
Improvement Plan, it's important to take a moment to
celebrate the progress we've made, and to acknowledge all the
individuals and organizations who contributed to this
important work. Although much has been accomplished, we know
there is still much more to do to make our community a place
where everyday experiences and decisions are healthier for
everyone. It will take the continued dedication of our
community partners and the investment of our time, energy,
and collective resources, to keep us moving forward. Only
when we work together, can we achieve our vision of an engaged
and empowered community that is working together to achieve
optimal health and well-being for all who live, work and play here.