Staff report
Build Health Challenge was kicked off this week by St Elizabeth Healthcare and a collaboration that includes the Northern Kentucky Health Department, Center for Great Neighborhoods, the Regional Alliance and Three Rivers District Health Department.
The collaboration is working together to pass tobacco-free policies and reduce tobacco use in Covington and Gallatin Couty which are well above the average adult smoking rate.
Kate Keller, Interact for Health; Garren Colvin, St. Elizabeth Healthcare; Lynne Saddler, Northern Kentucky Health Department; Dan Petronio, Center for Great Neighborhoods, and Karen Finan, Northern Kentucky Regional Alliance.
The NKY BUILD Partnership was selected for funding from a coalition of 12 national and local funding organizations, including The Kresge Foundation, the W.K. Kellog Foundation and Interact for Health.
The collaborative is working together to pass tobacco-free policies and reduce tobacco use in two Northern Kentucky communities: Covington and Gallatin County.
The project will improve data-driven decision making while softening residents’ perceptions about tobacco-free environments. The short-term impacts include healthier residents, increased use of data to plan and evaluate complex health programs, and collaboration across sectors to address health problems in Northern Kentucky.
The desired long-term impact is that fewer people will face tobacco-related chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, lung problems, and cancer. And those exposed to secondhand smoke will have improved outcomes and fewer children will start smoking. In addition, the resident tax burden from smoking ($1,168 per household) will decrease. The ultimate goal of the grant is to see a 2% reduction in the adult smoking rate in Covington and a 1% reduction in Gallatin County by August 2019.
This project aims to: 1) reduce smoking rates and secondhand smoke exposure, 2) improve organizational data sharing to direct combined health initiatives, and 3) introduce more smoke-free policies.
