ABLE Students visit Allen Neighborhood Center

Students in the Advanced Baccalaureate Learning Experience (ABLE) program, along with nine visiting members of the Internet and Women's Democratic Organizing from West Africa, were hosted to a "Dialogue on Community Health Organizing" by the Allen Neighborhood Center, Tuesday, May 15, 2001.

Libby Bogdan-Lovis, Assistant Director of Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences, who also teaches Medical Humanities: Pluralism in Health Care, a course for the ABLE program, explained the importance of the dialogue and its relevance to the class. The course content and objectives show how it explores "issues of power, authority, and exclusion in the health care system … to examine such issues at the international, national, and local levels with a special focus on innovative grassroots strategies for defining and meeting health care needs."

Libby Bogdan-Lovis (left) ........	making introductory remarks

Joan Nelson of the Neighborhood Center gave a lively rendering focusing on the Lansing Eastside Health Navigator Project. First, she traced the history of the Lansing Model Cities, an early community development initiative funded by the Federal Government, that resulted in the development of the Eastside Neighborhood Organization, ENO, an advocacy group comprising of residents from throughout the Eastside. Over the next quarter century, ENO would assist neighborhoods in addressing a range of issues like land use, housing, safety, and neighborhood beautification.

According to Nelson, the focus enlarged in 1996 when Sparrow Health System joined with the ENO to convene a Neighborhood Health Summit. The summit was predicated on the belief that to improve the 'health' of any community, stakeholders must embrace a broad definition of health, which includes issues such as housing, jobs, income, safety and education.

Joan Nelson... stressing a point	Bogdan-Lovis holds up poster for Nelson

Nelson said that Health Navigation project was one of many projects that were created by the Access to Healthcare Team which sought a strategy to increase awareness and appropriate use of existing Healthcare resources, in a manner mindful of the personal barriers that can interfere with Healthcare access. One of the resulting objectives was to develop a training for neighborhood resource persons that would certify them as contact points for understanding and accessing Healthcare services and for disseminating information within the neighborhood. A goal was set to train twelve to fifteen Health Navigators to serve as neighbor-friendly points of access. Funding for the training was secured through the Sparrow Community Health fund.

The key learning from the Eastside Model, according to Nelson, are that "We have learned over the last four years that neighborhood-based summits can be an effective and powerful catalyst for positive community health planning. Another important lesson is that any effort to meaningfully and systematically impact neighborhood 'health' requires an existing and functioning infrastructure that can be thoughtfully and thoroughly engaged in the process."

"We have also learned how important these steps are for measurable and sustainable results such as identifying and actively recruiting residential and institutional leaders; inviting and respecting neighborhood perceptions and ideas; accommodating the needs of neighbors regarding time, location, and even facilitation style of meetings and events; and, striking a balance between institutional preferences for extended planning processes and residents' desires for immediate action and results."

Nelson added that the project made them to "discover that for something to happen, it needs to be someone's job to it. Staffing these initiatives with a facilitator/organizer during the four-year life of the Summit was key to their success. Indeed, the responsibility of providing ongoing support for the Health Navigator network and other Summit-produced projects has passed to Allen Neighborhood Center, a hub for activities promoting the health, safety, stability, and connectivity of families and neighborhoods on the Eastside."

Visiting West African Women	Tea and Conversation