The El Dorado County Health and
Human Services Agency's (HHSA) Community Outreach Campaign, "Health
Through My Eyes," was the honorary recipient of the "Most Innovative
Campaign in a Small Jurisdiction" Award on June 30, 2016, from the Health
Officers Association of California (HOAC), who judges Public Health
Communication campaigns undertaken by California County Health Agencies. The outreach
project was designed to use a unique method of data collection that would be
attractive to youth so their perspectives could be included in the County’s 2016
Community Health Assessment. The 2016 HOAC Communications Awards recognize unique technological
innovations, and showcase outstanding efforts to improve community health and
promote fair access to healthy lifestyles using communications tools.
“We’re proud to earn the
recognition of our peers and excited to put the award to good use,” said Olivia
Byron-Cooper, Program Manager and Epidemiologist for HHSA. “The Youth Commission
really deserves the credit for this award. Our 2016 Community Health Assessment
is a much more representative depiction of the health of our community because
of their outstanding work.”
HHSA’s
Public Health Division teamed up with the El Dorado County Youth Commission and
Access El Dorado for the “Health through My Eyes” (HTME) PhotoVoice
Project. PhotoVoice is a process in which
individuals share their perspectives of their community through photography and
stories. The HTME PhotoVoice project captured what youth believe contributes to
good and poor health in our communities. The results have
been incorporated into the Public Health Division’s Community Health
Assessment.
In total, ten counties each
received a $10,000 award to support their respective efforts and another two
earned an honorable mention and the praise of their colleagues. All of them
have success stories worth emulating, according to the panel of health officers
and communications experts who chose the winners.
The HOAC Communications Project and all awards are funded by
The California Endowment. Each winner exemplifies The Endowment’s Health
Happens Here framework, which challenges Californians to think about people‘s
health beyond the doctor's office and the choices made by individuals, and
re-focus efforts on changes to the places where we live, learn and play.
“El Dorado County’s
extraordinary campaign represents the best of the day-to-day work being done by
local health departments to build healthier communities,” said Kat DeBurgh,
Executive Director of HOAC. “It’s not always easy to talk about the health of
the public. It’s both an extremely personal endeavor and one dependent on the
strength of our communities and institutions. Yet this county’s efforts have
made positive change possible by bringing people together with cutting-edge
communications.”
To
see the “Health Through My Eyes” video, please visit www.edcgov.us/publichealth
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