Heart Matters Volume 5, Number 1 - Spring 1995

In This Issue...

Project Profiles

Port Blandford

St. Mary's

Community Kitchens

Smoking Prevention

Info Corner

Good News: Smoking Rates Decline

SummerActive '95

NHHP on the Internet

Exchange Workshop

NHHP and Community Television

Project Profiles

Port Blandford

The Port Blandford Heart Health project has been rather busy over the autumn and winter months. "Participation" and "Fun" are two words to describe the Fall Festival held on November 5, 1994. Close to 100 people, of all ages, participated.

A special activity for children was the "Best Dressed Vegetable" contest. Children decorated vegetables at home and entered them into the festival contest. Roland Greening of Port Blandford, Claudette Boyd of the Newfoundland Council on Smoking and Health, and Donna Noseworthy - the Regional Nutritionist - judged the contest. The three winners were the "Couch Potato", a cabbage head, and a maid and a butler made from potatoes (see photo below). The dressed vegetables were great decorations.

Puppet shows were written and performed by people from the community, the Heart Health Committee and Claudette Boyd. The puppets brought the messages of active living, healthy eating and not smoking.

To keep everyone active, Pauline Garret and Sherry Harris led an aerobic workout and chair exercises. Pauline and Sherry are fitness leaders trained through the Heart Health project. Donna Noseworthy, also, taught the group the "Honky Tonk Stomp" line dance.

To round off the festival, people could view displays on smoking, healthy eating, Year of the Family, and blood pressure. Twenty-five adults had their blood pressure checked by Georgina Barry, Public Health Nurse.

The third annual Port Blandford Heart Health Winter Carnival was held on February 25, 1995. The original plans included cross-country skiing, hockey, plank racing and other outdoor activities. However, it rained the day before the carnival, which meant all events were held indoors.

A lively crowd participated in skipping, bowling (using 2 litre pop bottles filled with ice for pins), line dancing, tug of war, a sing-along and, for adults a blood pressure check. A creative poker run was held for adults, where participants earned cards by taking part in a fitness session.

There was a nutrition display at the Carnival, in addition to, the Port Blandford Heart Health Project display. A teenage dance-athon was held to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. In the evening an adult dance was held. Several door prizes were awarded at the end of the day's events.

St. Mary's

In order to keep active during the winter months, the St. Mary's Healthy Heart Committee held a fun filled evening of Line Dancing Lessons on November 28, 1994. With an excellent turn out of approximately 80 people. Plans are currently under-way to make this a weekly event.

An Aerobic Leadership Training program has also been initiated. The first session was completed in January of this year. The second session was held in late March. There are eight fitness leaders, two from each of the four communities in the project area.

Community Kitchen Workshop

In September 1994, Community Health - St. John's Region and the Single Parents Association of Newfoundland (SPAN), teamed up to offer a workshop to train facilitators for community kitchens. Interest in the idea of community kitchens was growing. Span had some hands on experience with running community kitchens and Community Health had resource materials that it wanted to share with interested groups. A local church offered use of its facilities. From there, the workshop seemed to fall into place.

Sixteen people participated in the one-day workshop held at George St. United Church. The majority of participants represented community centres belonging to the St. John's Brighter Futures Coalition. All present had an interest in learning how to take a lead role in starting a community kitchen.

Dr. Kevin Hogan brought greetings from the Newfoundland Heart Health Program (NHHP), and acknowledged the potential contribution that Community Kitchens can play in helping families have access to healthy foods.

Margie Coombes, nutritionist with Community Health - St. John's Region opened the workshop with a brief description of a Community Kitchen. Yvette Walton of SPAN described the "Newfoundland experience" to date. The major part of the day featured Margaret Harnum, author of "Eat to Your Heart's Content" and a community kitchen facilitator with SPAN. Margaret lead the group through the "Four Steps to the Kitchen". With some volunteers from the group, Margaret simulated an orientation meeting and planning day. This was followed by discussion of the key points that participants had observed. Margaret also gave an overview of the shopping day and described a typical cooking day.

Margie Coombes facilitated a discussion on Healthy Eating for the family; and Mary Cahill, Environmental Health Specialist, captivated the group with a down-to-earth session on food safety.

Evaluations of the workshop were overwhelmingly positive. The one gap that several participants identified was not seeing the actual "output" from a community kitchen. Plans are under-way to offer participants a chance to view a cooking day before they actually start their first kitchen.

If you are interested in learning more about Community Kitchens please contact your local Community Health office for a copy of the manual "Community Kitchens: Taking Affordable Action on Healthy Eating" or contact the Single Parents Association of Newfoundland (739-0709) for more information.

Peer-Led Smoking Prevention for Youth

"Making A Difference"

"Making A Difference" is a peer-led smoking prevention program aimed at community youth group members. The program's goal is to equip young people with the information and skills needed to make the responsible choices about smoking. Through this program, senior youth group members are trained to deliver three 60 minute smoking prevention sessions to junior youth group members. Allied youth is the community youth group responsible for the coordination and implementation of this program.

How Can A Youth Group Become Involved?

A.Y. is interested in sharing this program with other youth groups. Youth groups can become involved in one of two ways: (1) senior group members could be trained at a weekend workshop to deliver the sessions to younger group members or (2) if group membership is young (13 and under) you could request to have a peer leader come into your group to deliver the sessions.

Info Corner

Good News: Smoking Rates Decline

Smoking rates in both Canada and Newfoundland continue to decline. Today Newfoundland has a lower rate of smoking than the rest of Canada with only 28% of adults (15 years of age and older) classified as smokers. Just six years ago in 1989, 36% of Newfoundland adults were classified as smokers (see figure 1). The decline of eight percentage points in six years is a significant accomplishment in terms of heart health. Newfoundland is now among the provinces with the lowest smoking rates, as opposed to being among the provinces with the highest smoking rates, as it was a few years ago. In addition, Newfoundland smokers, smoke fewer cigarettes per day than the Canadian average. The Newfoundland smoker averages 16 cigarettes per day, while the Canadian smoker, smokes an average of 19 cigarettes per day. Unfortunately smoking among individuals in some groups continues to remain high, in both Canada and Newfoundland. In particular the 20-24 year old age group has a smoking rate that approaches 40% in both Canada and Newfoundland (see figure 2). The rate of smoking in this age group has not shown a significant change since 1986. The lowering of the rate of smoking in this age group remain a significant challenge for heart health and for all those involved in health promotion.

SummerActive 95...

...a national program promoting the many benefits of physical activity!

As you know, for twelve years, Canada's Fitweek was very successful in motivating million of Canadians to join in the celebration of active living. This annual event laid a solid foundation for SummerActive, a more flexible, much expanded community-based program. Through SummerActive, the focus will be on local events, activities and local leaders. The objective is to enhance the public's understanding of the substantial health, economic an other benefits associated with regular physical activity and the wide range of active living opportunities available at the community level.

SummerActive '95 is managed by ParticipACTION and delivered in partnership with the federal, provincial/territorial and municipal governments, corporate supporters, numerous national volunteer organizations and most importantly, the event leader.

Event leaders are encouraged to build on the National promotional "umbrella" campaign to promote existing recreation, parks, environment, health and other programs. This is also a great time to launch a new initiative!

Events can be planned for any time during the May 15 to July 15, 1995 promotion period. The duration of these activities can be as long as you like - an hour, a day, a week, a month or the entire two months. The important thing is to be involved and involve as many of your workmates, friends and family. Please make your event accessible to all regardless of age, gender, ability, income or culture. A SummerActive Program Guide has been prepared to provide you with essential information: a list of partners; a logo sheet and guidelines for the use of the logo; how-to's - How to Attract Corporate Sponsorship and How to Work with the Media; A standard news release form and some Facts and Stats. There are also other promotional materials and event packages such as "Sneaker Day", available at the Provincial Government Department of Tourism, Culture & Recreation. If you have any questions, please contact David Doyle, Consultant - Recreation & Sports Division, St. John's, Newfoundland at 729-5281.

NHHP on the Internet

The Newfoundland Heart Health Program is now on the Internet - the Information Superhighway!!

On April 4, 1995 the Minister of Education, the Honourable Chris Decker launched the St. John's InfoNet, at the A.C. Hunter Library in St. John's. The St. John's InfoNet is a community network that provides limited access to the worldwide Internet. Access to the St. John's InfoNet is free of charge and is available at public libraries in the city. Anybody with a computer and a modem will also be able to dial-up the InfoNet once they have a InfoNet account. Account applications are available in the public libraries. Similar InfoNets are planned for other communities in the province.

The Newfoundland Heart Health Program is a information provider to the St. John's InfoNet. In fact, this edition of Heart Matters is available on the InfoNet. The NHHP has also agreed to sponsor a modem line for the St. John's InfoNet, so more people in the community can get access to the InfoNet.

The Newfoundland Heart Health Program has a Home Page on the Internet's World Wide Web (WWW). The address of the NHHP Home Page is:

http://www.infonet.st-johns.nf.ca/providers/nhhp

The E-Mail address for NHHP is:

NHHP@infonet.st-johns.nf.ca

The NHHP Home Page on the World Wide Web is still under construction. Our ultimate aim is to have all NHHP documents available in electronic format on the World Wide Web. In the meantime please view that which is presently available on the WWW and send us your comments via E-mail or any traditional means of communication!

NHHP Exchange Workshop

The second Newfoundland Heart Health Program Exchange Workshop was held on May 12th and 13th, 1995 at the Battery Hotel in St. John's.

The objectives of the Workshop included:

• To provide a forum for communication among participants.
• To update and share information on all projects.
• To discuss diffusion plans and activities initiated.
• To increase participants' knowledge in pertinent topic areas.

Workshop participants included Community Health personnel, members of the NHHP Coordinating Committee, members of Community Projects and other resource people. Over 60 people from all over the province attended the workshop.

The workshop agenda included community project updates; information updates on Active Living, Healthy Eating, Smoking, and Blood Pressure and Blood Cholesterol Screening; Reports from the NHHP Coordinating Committee projects; and regional Community Health reports.

The Following concurrent information sessions were also held at the workshop:

• Mobilizing the Community
• Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers
• Increasing the awareness of Heart Health Activities

NHHP and Community Television

The NHHP has launched a community television project. The goal of the project is to promote Heart Healthy lifestyle to the general population using existing community television networks.

The cable stations in Conception Bay North and Dildo T.B agreed to participate as demonstration sites for the project. Using a community development approach a committee was formed in each of the demonstration sites to plan community television programming for a week long Heart Health festival of events in February 1995. These festivals were partnerships between the local cable stations, local development groups, public health, local schools and community organizations to develop a resource kit for community television/cable stations and community groups interested in Heart Health.

Through meetings, pre-video taped programs and live programming; local residents were involved in the production of programs focusing on smoking prevention and cessation, healthy eating and active living.

Local people were involved in the actual videotaping, live studio participation and behind the scenes production. There were panels on smoking, pre-taped cooking shows from the local high school, a grocery tour, local active living events and live youth participation and phone-ins.

The Heart Health Festivals through community television brought the communities together to focus on the risk factors for heart disease. It gave local residents the opportunity to discuss issues and find some solutions to their health problems.

This process and the materials developed through this event will provide the basis for a community television kit that can be used by communities to develop Heart Health television programming. These kits will be distributed to local cable stations and community health boards throughout the province.

If you would like to have some "heart health" information presented in Heart Matters or you would like to have this newsletter sent to a community group or organization, please contact:

Heart Matters

Newfoundland Heart Health Program

Confederation Building, West Block

P.O. Box 8700

St. John's, Newfoundland

A1B 4J6

or call

Gregory Doyle, Heart Matters, Editor

(709) 737-6222

or fax (709) 737-7382

E-Mail: NHHP@infonet.st-johns.nf.ca