A major milestone for Northern Health’s IMAGINE grant program is among highlights from the latest regular meeting of the Northern Health board of directors, held in Chetwynd last week.
The year 2018 marks a decade that the Northern Health Population and Preventive Public Health IMAGINE Community Granting program has been providing seed funding for community-led projects to promote healthy living. In that time, more than 800 projects have been awarded over $2.3 million.
“Ensuring a healthy community is a goal that requires efforts from all stakeholders, working collaboratively on opportunities for improvement,” said NH board chair Colleen Nyce, in a news release. “The success of the IMAGINE grant program recognizes the hard work of communities across the region to promote health, and prevent disease and injury.”
Population & Preventive Health presented to the board its newly-released report, IMAGINE Community Granting 2008-2018: A Decade of Healthy Community Action, reflecting on communities’ project successes.
Board members also received the final detailed report on Northern Health’s response to the 2017 wildfire evacuations. The report included a range of recommendations to improve the response to future crisis events, and a number of these recommendations have or are being implemented. The After-Action Review process included meetings, interviews and surveys of more than 335 NH staff and physicians.
“I am very proud of the commitment and efforts of our staff and physicians during an event that challenged us all,” said NH CEO & President Cathy Ulrich. “What we accomplished was exceptional, and this report captured the things we did well and the things we can improve should we be challenged by a similar experience in the future.”
Other highlights from the June Board meeting:
- NH Connections changes: NH Connections recently announced expanded eligibility to support more people with travel related to health care needs and issues. Board members heard that travel categories and program enhancements will continue to evolve to meet the needs of northerners
- Financial statement: Northern Health is in the process of finalizing its 2017/18 financial statements, which will be publicly released following routine auditing and approval by the NH Board and Ministry of Health
The next regular meeting of the Northern Health Board of Directors will be held in October 2018, in Prince George.
