Brandywine Health Foundation lays out plans to improve the community
By Kyle Carrozza, Staff Writer, The Times
Brandywine Health Foundation Planning Committee Chair Dawn James presents her committee’s findings. The group developed plans to focus on health equity, healthy youth, and a healthy community.
CALN – Grown adults wrote on tables with markers and constructed spaghetti towers in Coatesville Area High School’s cafeteria Tuesday night at Vision Café II, an event organized by the Brandywine Health Foundation to improve the health of the community.
Like its predecessor, the original Vision Café held in August, Vision Café II heard presentations from Brandywine Health Foundation staff, and attendees were encouraged to offer feedback by writing on paper that lined the cafeteria’s tables.
After gathering the suggestions from last time, the Foundation formed a research committee that conducted interviews, surveys, and focus groups with civic leaders and residents to form an action plan, which they presented at last night’s program.
“We gathered all voices from all individuals and looked for commonalities,” said Dawn James, the Planning Committee Chair.
State Representative Tim Hennessey (R-26), school board member Paul Johnson, County Commissioner Kathi Cozzone, District Justice Greg Hines, Coatesville City Council President David Collins, and other Coatesville and South Coatesville city council members were all in attendance to hear the resulting plans on Tuesday night.
City Council President David Collins (left) and member Ingrid Jones (second from left) listen as a resident makes suggestions on how to improve opportunities for city youth.
The plans included focuses on health equity to ensure access to resources for people regardless of income, healthy youth, which included not just physical well-being but also educational and leadership development, and a healthy community, which included plans to create activities and give grants to neighborhood projects.
“We want healthy people fulfilling their greatest potential, living in sustainable neighborhoods, and giving back to the community,” said James.
In order to increase health equity, the foundation wants to make sure residents are aware of the resources available to them, especially for expecting mothers. The committee proposed support groups for pregnant women and programs to get women into prenatal care to ensure that they have healthy babies.
Attendees construct a tower out of spaghetti with a marshmallow on top. The exercise was meant to reflect the challenge of working together to improve the community.
“There isn’t just one vehicle where everybody gets information,” Brandywine Health Foundation President and CEO Frances M. Sheehan said of the challenge of raising awareness.
One of the Brandywine Health Foundation’s brightest spots has been in the Coatesville Youth Initiative, which they will utilize to reach the goal of having healthy youth. The Foundation wants to spin-off the Initiative so that it becomes an independent organization. They will look to continue the Summer ServiceCorps, which connects young people with jobs to get them used to a work environment, and they plan on launching a youth philanthropy group, which will provide grants for young people who want to become involved with philanthropy.
“When we talk about healthy youth, we talk about health, development, and leadership of youth,” said Coatesville Youth Initiative Director Chaya Scott. “We want our young people to know how good it feels to give.”
The Youth Initiative has become an essential connection between the Foundation and the community.
“I think it brings people closer together; it brings them together as a family, and they get to see more things,” said Samaria Turner, a participant in the Youth Initiative and Coatesville Area High School student.
Much of helping young people reach their full potential also involves seeing the community reach its full potential. In order to create a healthy community, the committee wants to explore the idea of having weekly gatherings at Gateway Park. The gatherings will change on a weekly basis and could include such things as concerts, poetry readings, plays, and movie screenings. They also want to partner with various groups and local government to upgrade local parks and involve the community in the planning process.
Brandywine Health Foundation Board Chairman Harry Lewis Jr. stressed his belief that programs benefitting the youth benefit the community as a whole.
“After being an employee of the school district for so long, it’s a natural mixture of what going on with community and what’s going on with the kids,” said Lewis, a former Coatesville Area School District assistant principal.
After the committee presented each point, they encouraged attendees to discuss the issues with the people at their tables. Discourse on how to improve the community went in many directions. For example, Strawberry Festival Co-Chair Karol Collins suggested developing a smartphone app to increase awareness of health resources. Other residents called for programs to teach young people trades in order to increase their viability in the job market.
Collins, the Coatesville City Council President, said that he would like to see downtown areas cleaned up.
“You’d be surprised at what a coat of paint will do,” he said. “If you don’t make the visual change, people don’t know change is taking place.”
The program ended with an architectural contest. Attendees were given dry spaghetti, string, tape, and a marshmallow. In teams of four, people competed to see who could construct the tallest tower with the marshmallow on top. The exercise mirrored the community’s effort at improving itself. Creativity was vital, diverse skills were needed, mistakes were made, but in the end, teamwork won out. The winning team, which included Coatesville City Council Vice President Joseph Hamrick, received passes to the YMCA.
By the end of the night, such teamwork became clear in the many people present and the views they brought with them.
“With people’s input, we can’t help but move forward; I’ve excited with the results,” said Lewis. “We have a very powerful community. We get put down a lot, but we who live here know it’s the best.”
