Targeted Health Initiative:

Seniors Count of the Seacoast

In November, 2006 the Foundation for Seacoast Health convened the Seacoast Senior Coalition. This group included a handful of health and human service agency representatives who were concerned about serious unmet needs that present significant problems for seniors. With seed money from the Foundation, the group made a successful application to the Institute on Disability at UNH (www.iod.unh.edu) for a Community Partnership to Support Older Adults grant. This grant provides the Seacoast with $25,000/year for two years (2008-2010) to establish a community partnership based on the Seniors Count of Manchester model (www.seniorscountnh.org). Today the group is known as Seniors Count of the Seacoast with leadership representatives from Wentworth Connections, Portsmouth Regional Hospital, New Hampshire Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services, health and human services agencies, and senior advocates.Seniors Count is a convener of partnerships that are a catalyst for community-based outreach and action to redefine and ensure independence for older people and, in doing so, create a better life for all. This grant will allow Seniors Count of the Seacoast to strengthen the original community coalition and to develop strategies to mobile community resources to address identified needs. The time is now to focus significant attention and energy to create the systems change needed to care adequately for the frail elderly in our community.The Foundation for Seacoast Health is proud to support this group and looks forward to working collaboratively to "change the face of aging" for Seacoast area seniors.

Preventing Childhood Obesity

The rising rate of obesity among children in America has been the focus of much attention in the media and the medical community. This is clearly not just a national problem. The NH Healthy Schools Coalition reported that 18% of all school aged girls and 22% of school-aged boys in NH were overweight or obese as defined by the Centers for Disease Control. In 2004, the Foundation for Seacoast Health Trustees approved a matching fund program to call to action other funders and health care providers to create a community campaign on preventing obesity in children. Studies show obesity to be one of our society's most serious health problems, ranking just behind tobacco as a leading cause of death in the United States. Worse, perhaps has been the recognition that, increasingly, it's a problem for children. Although a national problem, we know obesity requires local solutions.              








Portsmouth Regional Hospital and the Foundation for Healthy Communities matched Foundation funding to create Step It Up Seacoast - a coalition of school folks, health care providers, and public relations volunteers to address the obesity problem. Step It Up Seacoast created Seacoast Passports, which included safety tips and maps of area walking trails that were distributed in the fall of 2005. The passports were meant to help families and neighborhoods to walk together. With Foundation funding, local schools have trained their physical education teachers in the Physical Best program to promote more and sustained physical activity for children. Schools began collecting data on children and tracked their progress toward better health through increased physical activity and improved nutrition. The Physician's Resource Guide to Local Physical Fitness Programs, a project of the Step it Up Seacoast coalition, has been disbributed to all Portsmouth physician's offices, town halls, Chambers, hospitals, libraries, etc. from Kittery to Exeter. To download this Guide, visit www.stepitupseacoast.org. 

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