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For more information on this project, contact Melissa Halley, Environmental Health Director, or Vivian Howard, PACE-EH Coordinator at the Gadsden County Health Department.

GADSDEN COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
August-September 2004 PACE-EH Progress Report

To:         Daniel Parker, M.S., and GAL
                Assistant Division Director, Division of Environmental Health

Cc:         Melissa B. Halley
                Environmental Manager

From:     Vivian R. Howard
                PACE-EH Project Coordinator

Subject: Gadsden County Environmental Health Community Project Progress Report
August-September 2004

Project Summary:

The Gadsden County Environmental Health Community Project is moving forward slowly but progressively. The PACE-EH project officially began on Friday, August 13, 2004. The delay was caused because of some unforeseen delays in getting the position posted and getting the coordinator’s payroll set up. However, in the meantime, numerous housekeeping items were addressed and taken care of. Now that we have hired a PACE-EH Project Coordinator, an Environmental Health Leadership Team is being formed, to assist in steering and ensuring the successfulness of the project. We found that the initial members that we wanted as our leadership team did not come from the community and they were more of an “expert” than a community member or leader. From all of the information that we have been able to gather, it seems to be noted that it is better to have more community members who are willing to be leaders in the community than to have members who are “experts” and/or policy makers. The purpose of PACE-EH is that the project be community-driven. On October 18, 2004 we will be hosting our first community meeting in the Gadsden County community to introduce our environmental health community project, discuss environmental health issues, establish a community health assessment team, and to encourage community involvement and networking with organizations that deals with environmental health issues.

PACE-EH Planning Process:

Note: Currently, we are in task three and behind schedule. As soon as task three is completed, the project will move forward in a timely manner.

Potential Gadsden County Environmental Health Leadership Team: These people have already committed to the PACE-EH Project and others are still being identified.

The Environmental Health Leadership Team will include additional members who represent the key agencies/organizations in the Gadsden County community.

Issues/Problems:
As the PACE-EH Coordinator, most of my background is in business, business support systems and public relations. One of the major problems that I am facing is that I have a limited background in environmental health. In order to offset this deficit in knowledge, I am in close contact with the Environmental Manager and her staff. I also plan to schedule field visits/inspections in order to get a better understanding of environmental Health and our community.

Updates:
An agenda has been prepared for our initial meeting. Some other documents have been prepared as well such as: PACE-EH Ingredients for Effective Meetings, Ground Rules, A PowerPoint presentation, A brief letter of explanation that breaks down the PACE-EH Process, A flyer has been developed to recruit other CEHAT members and the formation of relationships with city and county commissioners and leaders.

Schedule of Activities/Meetings:

Publications:

The following files are provided in the Adobe Acrobat pdf format.  Files over 100 kb in size and that may take longer to download and view, have their file size listed.

November 1, 2004 - Gadsden County PACE-EH Press Release

October 1, 2004 - Gadsden County PACE-EH Slide Presentation (156 kb)

September, 2004 - Gadsden County PACE-EH Flyer (127 kb)

September, 2004 - Gadsden County PACE-EH Factsheet