TRUCK FIRE – Firefighters knock down a fire in a Ford Explorer truck in Arrowhead Trailer Park in the 1200 block of Sawmill Creek Road Saturday evening. One person received fire-related injuries and was taken to the hospital, Sitka Fire Department Chief Craig Warren said, and the truck was considered a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Warren said. The fire hall received the call about the fire at 5:33 p.m., and one fire engine with eight firefighters and an ambulance were dispatched, he said. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Sitka Health Summit to Target Barriers
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Are there barriers that can be removed – or tools that can be used – to solve health problems that affect some populations disproportionately?
Such questions are among the issues that will be discussed at this year’s Sitka Health Summit.
Justin Rivas (Sentinel Photo)
The annual event is a chance for Sitkans to come together to discuss health issues in the community, listen to experts in their field, and come up with goals and action plans to address the most pressing health and wellness issues of the community.
The three-day Sitka Health Summit opens Wednesday with a Boundary Spanning Leadership Workshop at University of Alaska Southeast, Sitka campus. Workshop participants will learn about ‘‘universal boundaries’’ that prevent successful teamwork.
A public presentation is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Sitka Public Library, where guest lecturer Justin Rivas will discuss how income, race and geography impact health issues.
The Health Summit planning days will run from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday to discuss proposed health equity goals, and 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday to select the top two goals, at UAS. Community members – in and out of the health field – are invited to brainstorm ideas as they discuss health needs of the community and how to deal with them.
All the events are free and open to the public.
Rivas will conduct the boundary spanning workshop and make the library presentation Wednesday. He will also be a facilitator at the two days of community discussions, using a consensus process. He has master’s degrees from University of Wisconsin in public health and public administration, and he currently works for the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps program, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute.
Since the Health Summit began about a decade ago the planning days have always been a big event, drawing in Sitkans from different sectors of the community. Some arrive with their own initiatives, some are health professionals, and others just want to be part of the discussion.
“Let’s get a bunch of Sitkans in a room and picture some health goals,” said organizer Doug Osborne, a health educator at Sitka Community Hospital, one of the sponsors. “What are two things we can do?”
This year, the theme is “crossing boundaries,” and the focus of the goals from the Health Summit will be related to health equity, Rivas said.
In his Wednesday talk at the library Rivas will share information and case studies about public health efforts to understand and address disparities in access related to social and economic barriers, and “how addressing some of these areas can improve long-term health outcomes.”
The annual planning days always conclude with the selection of two public health goals for the year that will each receive a $2,000 grant to carry them out.
Rivas has already met with the Sitka planning team about some of the health issues in Sitka, which are identified as substance abuse and “inactivity,” but the community planning days give everyone the chance to express what they think the greatest needs are. He said he will ask people to look at problems with an “equity lens.”
As a community coach, he said he took a health equity approach in working in a mostly Latino community in Orange County, California, which wanted to improve “active transportation” – walking and biking. The action plan called for not only removing barriers, but implementing policies to encourage more walking and bike riding.
Past projects that have come out of the Sitka Health Summit have included a campaign to make Sitka more bike friendly and walkable; the Sitka Farmers Market; an accessible playground at Crescent Harbor; the planting of fruit trees; a community kitchen; improving access to fresh fish in school lunches; addressing the communitywide drug problem; and finding ways to better support Sitka’s elders.
Sponsors for this year’s summit, and its ‘‘Health Equity’’ theme, are the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, Sitka Community Hospital, Sitka Conservation Society, Sitka Counseling, White’s Inc./Harry Race Pharmacy, Southeast Radiation Oncology Center, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services-Section of Public Health Nursing, the University of Alaska Southeast-Sitka Campus, and the Sitka Health Summit Coalition.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Businesses using the Centennial Hall parking lot testified Tuesday against a proposal to charge them rent in addition to the $200 annual permit fee. City Administrator Hugh Bevan made the proposal in response to the Assembly’s direction to Centennial Hall manager Don Kluting to try to close the $340,000 gap between building revenues and operational costs.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand President William S. Paul Sr. will be special guest and speaker at the local ANB, Alaska Native Sisterhood Founders Day program Monday at the ANB Hall.