News

Please see the most recent SOPHIA newsletter here!

SOPHIA Members may be interested in attending the following conferences. Please note that registrations are closing soon!

IAIA17: Impact Assessment's Contribution to the Global Efforts in Addressing Climate Change
Montreal
April 4-7, 2017
Registration closes March 15th

NNPHI's Open Forum for Quality Improvement
New Orleans
April 19-21, 2017
Registration closes March 15th

American Planning Association's National Planning Conference
New York City
May 6-9, 2017
Registration closes April 6th

Whether you work in land use, energy, law, housing, transportation, public health or finance, your next project or policy can have a major impact on community health.

Learn what HIA is, work through the steps, and then discuss the opportunities and challenges you may face in your community. You will also hear about statewide initiatives and various tools to promote health equity in your area of expertise.

http://www.cpe.rutgers.edu/courses/current/ep0704hb.html

The Environmental Public Health (EPH) Community Health and Design Coordinator plays a key role for the Built Environment Unit (BEU). Responsible for managing community and stakeholder engagement activities, including the development and implementation of broad-based marketing, communications and public relations strategies to promote and sustain the community capacity-building within institutions and among residents, namely coordination of stakeholder events and other education and outreach activities of the community planning team; the development of marketing and educational materials; and ongoing evaluation of promotion, education and outreach efforts. 

Development and Coordination

• Synthesizes complex and diverse information; collects and objectively weighs data.
• Uses experience, intuition, and critical thinking to complement data.
• Supports health impact assessments, rapid needs assessments or other programs and tools necessary to support the BEU objectives.
• Develops various programs to meet the needs of the community.
• Collaborates and partners with external organizations and corporations.
• Serves as the primary BEU representative and contact person for various initiatives, including initiating and maintaining relationships with community organizations in order to accomplish the BEU objectives.
• Coordinates all aspects of outreach events associated with the BEU.
• Seeks to continually work towards an "All Health in Policies".
• Participates, supports and engages in Health Impact Assessments (HIA), rapid needs assessment and other various initiatives.
• Coordinates community events, health fairs, and other marketing activities as needed.
• Serves as the community and stakeholder engagement team leader, content expert and advisor to the BEU.
• Supports recruitment of stakeholders of both community residents and institutions for participation related to the BEU activities.
• Conducts community and stakeholder research related to community residents and various sectors to inform education and outreach strategies.
• Develops and implements work plans that address communication, public relations, education and outreach activities of the BEU with respect to assessment, issue and strategy prioritization and action plan development activities.

Supervision

• Oversees community capacity-building and mobilization efforts, including the coordination of webinar training, and educational workshops.
• Develops and maintains record of outreach and communication channels and networks, including linkages to community gatekeepers and opinion leaders across various sectors via a contacts management system.
• Monitors news sources, podcasts, webcasts, publications, and other media sources and informs collaborative participants and other stakeholders as information becomes available.
• Closely monitors, tracks and evaluates results of promotion, education and outreach activities.
• Provides needed summaries to required internal and external stakeholders.
• Oversees the development, content and maintenance of a web-based platform (i.e. SharePoint) to support social computing, contacts and documents management and other applications relevant to community and stakeholder engagement activities.
• Oversees the development and dissemination of culturally/linguistically appropriate promotional/marketing and educational material such as newsletters, web resource guides and press releases through various outlets, including print and electronic media through our Office of Public Information.
• Ensures appropriate provision of interpretation, translation or other specific communication services (e.g. for the hearing or visually impaired and non-English speaking audiences) as required.

Other

• Performs other duties as assigned, including special tasks involved in responding to an emergency event.

More information can be found here: http://agency.governmentjobs.com/harriscountytx/default.cfm?action=viewjob&JobID=1591650&ViewSupp=Yes&headerfooter=1&WDDXJobSearchParams=

The Health Impact Review and Policy Analyst will develop, implement, and maintain a Health Impact Review process, in collaboration with the Public Infrastructure Department, in order to achieve a Health in All Policies approach as part of Harris County Public Health's Health Equity Policy.

• Works with various agencies, which include Harris County Public Health (HCPH), Harris County Public Infrastructure Department (PID), Harris County Fire Marshall's office and other stakeholders to identify priority areas for integration of a health impact review (HIR) process.
• Conceptualizes, develops, and implements a HIR process plan for the priority areas.
• Coordinates and facilitates meetings with a variety of partners including Harris County departments, community based organizations, and community leaders.
• Organizes and facilitates activities to collect community input on the conceptualization, development, and implementation of the HIR process.
• Builds consensus between agencies and community partners that may have opposing views.
• Collaborates with multiple agencies to develop a plan on how to incorporate community input into planning and design documents (when applicable) and revise current PID planning documents as needed.
• Assists agencies with the development of planning documents and scopes of work, and with oversight of contractors, as part of the HIR process.
• Organizes and facilitates meetings to educate community members about the benefits of Health in All Policies and built environment improvements to promote development of healthy communities.
• Trains community partners to educate residents and decision makers about the public health benefits of 'healthy communities' (e.g., walkable and bikeable communities).
• Performs other duties as assigned, including special tasks involved in responding to an emergency event.

More information available here: http://agency.governmentjobs.com/harriscountytx/default.cfm?action=viewJob&jobID=1579231

American Planning Association has an immediate opening for a Research Associate in the Planning and Community Health Center - find out more about the position and how to apply: https://www.planning.org/jobs/ad/9113550/.

Don't miss the SOPHIA Sunday Social at the American Public Health Association's 144th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Denver. Join fellow SOPHIA members and others for a casual gathering Sunday evening, October 30th between 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. at Stout Street Social. So we have a rough idea of how many will be joining us, please email SOPHIA Steering Committee member Jimmy Dills if you are interested (jdills@gsu.edu).

HIA topics are well-represented at APHA. Find some of your fellow HIA practitioners at one of these many sessions featuring HIA, health equity, HiAP, and other HIA-related topics.

Deputy Director-Community Transformation 

The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute is currently accepting application for the Deputy Director for Community Transformation who will serve as a senior leader for the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program, a collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This Deputy will lead the program’s work in the following areas:

·       Building partnerships with organizations across the nation who are committed to building health in local communities;
·       Providing tools and guidance to local communities who are advancing health improvement efforts;
·       Creating and supporting a network approach to link partners and communities in these efforts;
·       Learning and sharing lessons to accelerate local health building;
·       Serving as an ambassador for building a culture of health

Successful candidates for this position will have strong skills in connecting vision with operations, managing complex projects, integrating work across a variety of programs, working with diverse partners from multiple sectors (including state or national philanthropies) and preferably a combination of both local and national experience.   

For more information and to apply, please visit http://www.ohr.wisc.edu/Weblisting/External/PVLSummary.aspx?pvl_num=85410. To ensure consideration, applications must be received by September 30, 2016.

Follow the links below to two Requests for Proposals for HIAs in New York and Florida:

• HIA of a Gas Compressor Unit in Town of Highland, New York
  
• HIA of The Underline
  

Health Impact Assessment (HIA)-Stories from California Counties

Aug 04, 2016 at 2 pm ET

Whether you are new to HIA, trying to integrate HIA practice into your work, or a more seasoned practitioner, this webinar will provide insights into HIA practice at the local level.

There are aspects of HIA practice that can be challenging-convincing key partners that it will add value, engaging stakeholders and community members in a meaningful way, and integrating HIA as a regular practice within an organization. Panelists will share their experiences addressing these challenges in three California counties:

Brett Storey, Environmental Utilities, Placer County

Tammy Lee, Alameda County Public Health Department

Lauren Gase, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health

This webinar is brought to you by Sequoia Foundation and the California Department of Public Health. This webinar is supported by a grant from the Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, with funding from The California Endowment.

The views expressed are those of the organizers and presenters and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Health Impact Project, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, or The California Endowment.