by Sandra Davis, CHPP Coordinator
Sixteen community memberss successfully completed the Anchor of Hope Community Foundation’s Community Health Promoter Program (CHPP), and graduated as CHPP on Monday, Nov. 20 at the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building. Graduates received pins and receive their Community Health Promoters Certificates of Completion, given by the Honorable Mayor Sherman Lea, Sr., during the 7:00 pm City Council Session!
Congratulations to the 2017 CHPP graduates, Jonathan Barton, Priscilla Casey, Marilyn Hairston, Elizabeth Hogan, Glenda Jordan, Diana L. Nicholson-Nance, Tameka Paige, Christine Poindexter, Yevonne Powers, Marla Robertson, Barbara A. Sanders, Brooke Stephens, Trequita Trials, Dorothy Thomas, and Virginia Turner. These graduates represent a cross-section of our Roanoke Valley communities, churches and local safety-net organizations, to include the Department of Social Services, Lead Safe Roanoke, and Carilion Clinic.
The Community Health Promoter Program, a wellness initiative that is funded by Carilion Clinic and hosted this year by Belmont Baptist Church in Southeast Roanoke, provided valuable information on how to stay healthy, how to recognize early signs of illness, and how to share that information with others. The course built on the concept that community members are best suited to return to their communities, act a “change agents” when applying disease-prevention strategies in their day-to-day lives, and when they disseminate information learned to their family members, friends, peers, and the community at-large.
Persons who successfully completed this 30-hour course, learned skills on how to intentionally return to their communities and assist others in making transformational life-style decisions–advocating for healthier living. Research shows when risky behaviors are identified and replaced with healthier living, the health and well-being of persons improve; then ultimately, a community becomes healthier.
The CHPP featured a broad overview of major chronic diseases that we face here in the Roanoke Valley and offered disease-prevention strategies that are consistent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2020’s objectives on health promotion and disease prevention. It also included the serving of healthy meals weekly to address “poor eating habits” that we see in our communities and the need to incorporate “healthy-eating” habits in our daily lives.
As the Roanoke Valley implements effective measures to improve the health and wellness of our communities, such as United Ways’ Healthy Roanoke Valley and the Pathways HUB, the utilization of CHPs and community health workers (CHWs) will be used to promote population health and health equity here in the Roanoke Valley, especially in the northwest and southeast areas.
Anchor of Hope Community Foundation.
