Designing Policy: A New Point of View
Sept. 23, 2015
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Courtyard by Marriott Conference Center
Conference Theme
Policy, systems and environmental change is a new way of thinking about how to effectively improve health in a community. For many years, health programs have focused on individual behavior, assuming that if you teach people what will make them healthy, they will find a way to do it. Unfortunately, being healthy is not just about individual choices. Today, we’re realizing that it’s not enough to know how to be healthy – you need practical, readily available healthy options around you. That’s where policy, systems and environmental change comes in.
Policy, systems and environmental change is a way of modifying the environment to make healthy choices practical and available to all community members. By changing laws and shaping physical landscapes, a big impact can be made with little time and resources. By changing policies, systems and/or environments, communities can help tackle health issues like obesity, diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases.
Learn From the Best
Join others with a passion to improve the health of our community - individuals who represent a variety of sectors including government, workplace, clinical, educational and community settings. This is your opportunity to meet them, share experiences, connect and collaborate. At the end of the conference, you will return home equipped with solid data and practical strategies to make your work more effective. You will take with you a renewed sense of commitment and passion and the satisfaction of knowing that others are working just like you to make a difference in west Georgia.
Conference Agenda
Courtyard by Marriott/Carrollton Cultural Art Center
8:30 – 9 a.m. Registration at the Courtyard by Marriott
9 – 11:30 a.m. General Session with Keynote by Mark Fenton
11:30 – 12:30 Lunch
12:30 – 1 p.m. Mark Fenton Walk Audit to Tracy Stallings Community Center.
Tracy Stallings Community Center
1 – 1:15 p.m. Walk Audit discussion
1:30 – 2:20 p.m. Concurrent Breakout Sessions
2:30 – 3:20 p.m. Concurrent Breakout Sessions
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. BrainFest, exhibits and refreshments
General Session
Mark Fenton will highlight the incredible improvements that have been made in the west Georgia area and make the case for why "sticky" policy in all areas of preventative health is most effective in decreasing sedentary behaviors, increasing opportunities for accessing healthy foods, increasing physical activity and reducing tobacco use.
Breakout Sessions
- Catalyzing Community Health through Safe Routes to School. Speaker: Stephanie Weber, Safe Routes to School
Understand how Safe Routes to School can improve the health and well-being of children and families in your community, how to develop a program that fits your community's needs and the broader benefits of doing so.
- Creating More Livable, Walkable Communities. Speaker: Mark Fenton, Transportation, planning and public health consultant
This is an opportunity to describe in detail the attributes of more walkable, bicycle-friendly settings, and the successes of specific communities. Mark suggests concrete steps individuals, neighborhoods, professionals, companies, and governments can take to immediately begin to alter their environments more positively.
- Innovative Approaches to Healthy Food Access. Speaker: Karen Shore, MPH, Director of Consulting, The Food Trust
The Food Trust is a nonprofit organization working nationally to improve access to and increase demand for affordable and healthy foods in communities. This session will discuss innovative and cross-sector approaches to healthy food retail work, including in-store marketing, healthy food incentives, new partner collaborations, and community-clinical linkages.
- Clear the Air: SmokeFree Environments. Speaker: Onjewell Smith, M.A., Southern States Regional Consultant, Americans for NonSmokers' Rights Foundation
Americans for NonSmokers Rights is a non profit, public health advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the right of nonsmokers to breathe smokefree air. The session will cover policy design and implementation to eliminate secondhand smoke from enclosed work places and public places, including multi-unit housing.
- Georgia Shape’s Collective Impact: A Statewide Childhood Obesity Initiative - Speakers: Emily Anne Vall, PhD, Obesity Project Manager, Georgia Department of Public Health, Kelly Cornett, MS, Physical Activity Coordinator, Georgia SHAPE, Debra Kibbe, MS, Senior Research Associate, Georgia Health Policy Center
Georgia Shape is the governor’s statewide, multi-agency initiative bringing together governmental, philanthropic, academic and business communities to address child and adolescent obesity prevention in Georgia. This session will present challenges and best practices in organizing a large-scale, statewide childhood obesity prevention while also identifying unique strategies used when implementing an effective framework used for organizing partners and evaluating initiatives.
- What’s Working Well: Monitoring and Managing Chronic Conditions Wherever. Speaker: Chris Parker, MD, MPH, Associate Project Director, Georgia Health Policy Center
This session will engage participants in an understanding and discussion about policy, system and environmental approaches that are being used to promote wellness in the workplace and other places of social connectivity.
Conference Features
- Walk Audit
Get in your daily exercise by participating in the Walk Audit with Mark Fenton designed to highlight the built environment and have you experience the street from a pedestrian’s point of view. The walk from the Courtyard by Marriott to the Tracy Stallings Community Center is about 15 minutes and all conference participants are encouraged to participate. Be sure to wear comfortable walking shoes. Parking is available at the Stallings Center if unable to walk. - BrainFest
We will finish the day with refreshments and an informal gathering giving you the opportunity for interaction with the speakers from the conference, to meet and greet fellow attendees and to visit exhibits from organizations in the community that partner with Get Healthy, Live Well to improve the health of west Georgia.
Conference Venues
- Courtyard by Marriott/Carrollton Cultural Art Center
180 Barnes Avenue, Carrollton, GA
Registration is in the Courtyard by Marriott. The morning session will be held in the theater at the Carrollton Cultural Art Center. Lunch will be served in the Marriott’s beautiful lounge and Bistro area, the outside courtyard and conference room.
- Tracy Stallings Community Center
118 White Street, Carrollton, GA
The Tracy Stallings Community Center will host the afternoon breakout sessions and the Brainfest.
Parking information
Free parking for the morning session is available at the Marriott and in the parking deck across from the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center. Parking for the afternoon session at the Stallings Center is available in the parking deck across the street or along the street.
Registration Information
The conference is free. Made possible with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Tanner Health System. Register online now. For additional information, call 770.836.9871.