Commissioner Hammond has stressed that developing early literacy skills should be a priority in Colorado and that we must work together to encourage children to read during the summer. Local public libraries will also be encouraging children ages 0-18 to participate in exciting Summer Reading Programs that encourage children and teens to read while attending great events at local libraries throughout the summer.

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) reports that “Reading for fun over the summer is very important for children and teens. Reading often during the summer helps students keep up the reading skills they gained during their last year in school.” CDE also states that kids have more fun when they see others reading.  Moreover, allowing them to choose their own books is helpful to keeping them enthusiastic about reading.

CRS encourages families to participate in these exciting free summer programs.  Locate your local public library to register for the 2013 Summer Reading Program and “Find A Book Colorado” to keep your children’s imaginations alive this summer.

The results have been summarized in a report entitled The State of Health: Colorado’s Commitment to Become the Healthiest State  that features four specific health recommendations: 1) promoting prevention and wellness  2) expanding health care coverage access and capacity  3) improving health system integration and quality and 4) enhancing value and strengthening sustainability.  The report outlines a blueprint for meeting these recommendations and provides a description of measurable targets that will track progress over time.

Promoting prevention and wellness offers options to help individuals stay healthy and become healthier, such as increasing awareness about the importance of wellness, building individual engagement in healthy behaviors and encouraging personal responsibility.  Improved coordination between behavioral health and physical health providers is also recommended.

The second recommendation, to expand coverage, access and capacity addresses the need to ensure access to care for individuals when and where they need it. Proposals include expanding public and private health insurance coverage; expanding Colorado’s health workforce by enhancing education, training and employment pathways for mid-level non-physician providers, care coordinators and patient navigators; recruiting and retaining more primary care providers in under-served communities; and providing health services through telehealth, or long-distance internet-based provision of services.

The third recommendation to improve health system integration and quality is attained by eliminating barriers to better care and improving the way health services are provided to ensure more person-centered care. Options include expanded use of patient-centered medical homes, or medical hubs. Another mechanism entails access to State information and services through the Colorado Information Marketplace, a comprehensive database system that will provide consolidated health information data to the public, health providers and technology experts.

The final recommendation promotes strategies to enhance value and strengthen sustainability, or to develop financial incentives for healthcare providers to focus on quality and value of their care rather than volume.  Strategies along these lines include Medicaid cost containment, incentive-based payment reform and investment in Health Information Technology systems that create efficiency in delivery of health services.

Colorado is a state where citizens work collaboratively across disciplines and give priority to health initiatives.  We benefit from having abundant recreational opportunities and healthy lifestyle practices. The efforts described above build on these strengths and can help, as Governor Hickenlooper and partners implore, to enable us to become the healthiest state in the nation.

The program, which is overseen by the state’s Tobacco Education, Prevention, and Cessation Grant Program Review Committee, strives to lead Colorado’s fight against tobacco-related death, disease, and economic burden by bringing together organizations and individuals to support tobacco-free lifestyles and environments. CDPHE reports that the program and its partners provide inclusive, evidence-based, culturally appropriate, and cost effective programs and policies that are effective in achieving the following goals.

• Prevent youth from starting to use tobacco;
• Help people who use tobacco to quit;
• Assist in the reduction of and protection from secondhand smoke; and
• Reduce tobacco use among groups that are disproportionately affected and/or at high risk.

According to CDPHE, the health and economic impacts of tobacco tend to be greater for African-Americans, Latinos/Latinas, Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, those in treatment for substance abuse or mental illness, people with disabilities, spit tobacco users, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender and people with low socioeconomic status. These 10 high-risk populations also have an increased burden of tobacco-related disease, disability, and death.

Although, eliminating tobacco-related health disparities poses a great challenge, CDPHE reports that “Colorado’s Tobacco Education, Prevention and Cessation Program joins tobacco control coalitions nationwide to understand patterns of tobacco use and consequences within these priority populations.” By doing so, the program hopes to develop and implement effective strategies which acknowledge the special needs of these groups in Colorado.

For those interested in attending a meeting, the Review Committee meets on the third Friday of every month from 1:00-4:30 p.m. at CDPHE, located at 4300 Cherry Creek Drive South, Denver, 80246. All meetings are open to the public. Please read the Tobacco Grant Program Review Committee Funding Recommendations for FY14 for more detailed information outlining the grants objectives.

The Center for Research Strategies supports the efforts of CDPHE and the Tobacco Education, Prevention, and Cessation Partnership Program, in hopes of creating a healthier, smoke free tomorrow.

Population groups who have been disproportionately affected by viral hepatitis-related liver cancer include Asian and Pacific Islanders and increasingly African Americans, baby boomers, and men.  More than 75 percent of those infected with hepatitis C are baby boomers, most of whom don’t know they’re infected.  http://www.cdc.gov/KnowMoreHepatitis/

Since early detection allows those infected to receive lifesaving treatment that can limit disease progression, and prevent cancer deaths, the CDC has developed a five minute online Hepatitis Risk Assessment that can help identify those for whom testing is appropriate. The online assessment asks questions based upon CDC’s guidelines for testing and vaccination.

In addition, May 19th has been designated as a national “Hepatitis Testing Day.”   In Colorado, the Hep C Connection offers free hepatitis testing and counseling to anyone born between 1946 and 1964 or with at least one of the following risk factors:  1) received blood or blood products before 1992 2) ever injected drugs and 3) had sexual contact with an hepatitis C-positive individual.  The Hep C Connection website also lists hepatitis testing sites throughout Colorado.

For more information see, the CDC Viral Hepatitis Homepage

CRS partners with the Hep C Connection in support of its efforts to increase awareness of hepatitis and HIV risk through the Colorado HIV/AIDS Prevention Grant Program (or CHAPP) and endorses May as a time for all who are potentially at risk for hepatitis to be tested.

SOCUE’s CHAPP-funding program is titled Mi Vida Su Vida (My Life, Your Life).  Adapted from SISTA, an evidence-based behavioral intervention endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it uses a Promotora de Salud model to educate and train women from the community to become lay health workers, or promotoras.  The promotoras conduct healthy lifestyles/risk reduction education interventions in small and large groups to raise awareness and reduce high-risk sexual behaviors among its target population.  For their CHAPP-funded program, the target group is recently incarcerated Latina women. The program consists of 12 weekly 2-hour educational sessions conducted by the promotoras at halfway houses where the women live.  Participating women explore the personal barriers that prevent them from leading a healthy and productive lifestyle. Session content encourages self-exploration through discussions related to culture and/gender pride, psycho-sexual development, basic anatomy, sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDs, substance abuse, domestic violence, depression and assertiveness training.

Research staff at the Center for Research Strategies and the University of Colorado- Denver have been contracted by the CHAPP grant program office at the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment to monitor intervention activity of all 14 grantees in the program. Over the past five months, Mi Vida Su Vida has been very successful in its efforts, reaching 20 women in the first 12-session class conducted so far this year and testing 25 women for HIV during that same time. Program staff will continue their efforts into the spring with a second cohort of women.  Congratulations on a job well done!

The Healthy School Champions Score Card is based on the CDC’s Coordinated School Health model and enables participating schools to assess best practices across eight component areas that define best practices in implementing a coordinated approach to health and wellness strategies.  The Score Card can be used both as a program evaluation and planning tool and for purposes of monetary awards and recognition.

The Leadership Summit on April 17, 2013 will begin with the Healthy School Champions Recognition Breakfast, featuring a talk by 2011 MacArthur Fellow, Award-Winning Harvard Economist, Education Activist, and collaborator on the Bestselling book Freakonomics, Dr. Roland Gerhard Fryer, Jr.   The lunch time speaker will be American bioethicist, author of Healthcare, Guaranteed, and the Diane and Robert Levy University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel.

The daylong summit also features 16 workshops offered by local and national Health and Wellness experts as well as implementers of The Colorado Integration Project, an effort to promote best practices and tangible tools for advancing the professional growth of educators and academic achievement for all students.

CRS applauds Colorado’s healthiest schools and celebrates the Leadership Summit as an opportunity to showcase the critical link between effective educators, healthy, safe, and welcoming schools and increasing academic achievement for all Colorado students.

Super Tracker offers virtual coaching and a journal that helps plan, analyze and track diet and physical activity. SuperTracker has a program called Food-A-Pedia where nutritional information for over 8,000 foods can be found as well as a food tracker. The food tracker not only tracks and compares the foods you eat with your nutrition targets, but it also allows you to enter your physical activity and weight.  The program provides weight management guidance and reports that enable you to track progress towards meeting your personal goals.  

ChooseMyPlate.gov also illustrates the five food groups that are necessary building blocks for a healthy diet (fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins and dairy). The website describes the health benefits and nutrients of each food group and details the number of servings necessary for individuals by gender and age.

If you are as interested in maintaining your personal health and fitness goals, as we are here at the Center for Research Strategies, follow MyPlate on Facebook and visit their website to get exciting new recipes, fitness updates, and to download the SuperTracker now!

• Brothas4Ever: This 11 year old program provides HIV prevention and community-building among African-American same gender loving men, including retreats, social network outreach, HIV testing and Monday night groups.
• Medical Case Management, financial assistance, advocacy and emotional support to HIV positive individuals of all races who need help with medical or social services that impact their health. A separate program focuses on African-Americans living with HIV.
• Early Intervention Services, linking people living with HIV who are newly diagnosed or who have been out of care with medical services and treatment.
• Confidential HIV, STI and Hep C testing Monday through Friday, from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm
• Community Without Walls: Transitional planning and ADAP enrollment for men of all races living with HIV in local county jails and state prisons, and assistance with linkage to care, emergency housing, food, hygiene products upon their release. Services are provided in the jails/prisons and, thereafter, in the office.
• Groups, outreach, and HIV testing to reduce the rate of HIV among Denver metro African American women, including Phenomenal Women, which has been meeting for 10 years on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month.
• Jump Start: HIV prevention skills-building groups and individual level intervention/transition planning in state prisons county jails and halfway houses, for HIV negative, heterosexual African-American men, to reduce the risk/transmission of HIV in the African-American community, particularly among heterosexual men and women.
• Substance abuse treatment to HIV positive and at-risk individuals through one-on-one and group counseling
• Individual counseling, groups and outreach for African-Americans living with HIV, to reduce the transmission of HIV, and encourage condom use and disclosure
• Intensive outreach by African-American women, including transgender women, within their social networks, emphasizing condom use and HIV testing

Founded in 2002, It Takes a Village responds to the need for culturally specific disease prevention programs. Part of the strength of It Takes a Village staff lies in their collaboration with other community advocates – organizations and individuals alike. Current collaborations include The Empowerment Program, Church World Services, Colorado
Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, St. Francis Center Employment Services, Second Chance Center, Children’s Hospital, Denver Public Health, Tri-County Health Department, Brother Jeff’s Community Health Initiative, and Metro Community Provider Network.

Two programs at It Takes a Village are funded by the Colorado HIV and AIDS Prevention Grant Program (CHAPP): Jump Start and Sisters in Spirit.  Both programs aim to reduce incidences of HIV/AIDS in the African-American community. Jump Start works with African-American men who are incarcerated and then transitioning from incarceration or recently parole. Sisters in Spirit targets high risk African-American women, including transgender women.

CRS staff collaborate with members of the It Takes a Village team in providing technical assistance for programming funded by the Colorado HIV and AIDS Prevention Grant Program (CHAPP). CRS is proud to work with It Takes a Village and to support the selflessness and dedication of its staff members.

Starting on March 16 through May 11, 2013, In the Community health fairs will be held throughout the state offering over 20 free screenings including blood pressure, bone health, breast exams, PAP smears, lung function, and oral, hearing and vision testing.  In addition, the fairs feature low cost assessments for blood chemistry, PSA testing, blood cell and hemoglobin AIC screening.   Health professionals will be on hand to answer questions.  In addition, volunteers can provide assistance in locating community resources and health education services.  All adults 18 years of age and over are eligible to participate.

Screening results, along with an explanation on how to read the results, are delivered to participants within three to six weeks.  Volunteer registered nurses and physicians directly contact fair participants and provide information regarding local follow up resources if the test results indicate that a critical health situation is occurring.   While attending a 9Health Fair does not replace the need for regular check-ups with a physician, they offer a convenient and low-cost option for determining whether further diagnosis and treatment are indicated.

Over the upcoming months 149 fairs are scheduled in locations throughout Colorado to be manned by nearly 20,000 volunteer workers.  The program’s consistent quality has earned endorsements from the Colorado Medical Society, Colorado Nurses Association and the Colorado Hospital Association.   For locations and a list of screenings, go to.

Attending a fair is a great way to stay healthy.  Find a fair that is scheduled in your neighborhood and take advantage of this convenient and low-cost way to stay on top of recommended routine screenings.  For a listing of the preventive screenings that are currently recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force see.

RMMRCCO’s goal is to recruit, train, and sustain a high-quality force capable of supplementing public health, emergency response, and community resiliency efforts by:

• Eliminating Health Disparities
• Health Promotion/Disease Prevention
• Women, Infants and Children Initiatives (WIC), and
• Emergency Preparedness and Response

For 2013, RMMRCCO hopes to recruit 485 new members for its team.  In addition, the organization will provide monthly training and education opportunities for the development and retention of members while building upon pre- existing partnerships within the served community.

According to RMMRCCO, volunteers are required to attend an initial orientation, occurring on alternating Fridays and Saturdays each month. Additionally, volunteers will need to participate in at least one, annual event or incident and respond to two call-down drills a year where RMMRCCO tests their ability to rapidly communicate with all of their members. If you are a medical professional who is willing to help in clinical situations, or a non-medical professional who can assist with RMMRCCO activities, please register to volunteer.