{"id":4815,"date":"2013-04-03T12:46:55","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T16:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=4815"},"modified":"2013-04-03T12:46:55","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T16:46:55","slug":"vision-cafe-ii-looks-to-turn-community-plans-into-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=4815","title":{"rendered":"Vision Cafe II looks to turn community plans into reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandywine Health Foundation lays out plans to improve the community<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/span><\/strong>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Brandywine<\/a>

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

CALN \u2013 Grown adults wrote on tables with markers and constructed spaghetti towers in Coatesville Area High School\u2019s cafeteria Tuesday night at Vision Caf\u00e9 II, an event organized by the Brandywine Health Foundation to improve the health of the community.<\/p>\n

Like its predecessor, the original Vision Caf\u00e9 held in August, Vision Caf\u00e9 II heard presentations from Brandywine Health Foundation staff, and attendees were encouraged to offer feedback by writing on paper that lined the cafeteria\u2019s tables.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gathered all voices from all individuals and looked for commonalities,\u201d said Dawn James, the Planning Committee Chair.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"City<\/a>

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want healthy people fulfilling their greatest potential, living in sustainable neighborhoods, and giving back to the community,\u201d said James.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Attendees<\/a>

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.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t just one vehicle where everybody gets information,\u201d Brandywine Health Foundation President and CEO Frances M. Sheehan said of the challenge of raising awareness.<\/p>\n

One of the Brandywine Health Foundation\u2019s brightest spots has been in the Coatesville Youth Initiative, which they will utilize to reach the goal of having healthy youth.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about healthy youth, we talk about health, development, and leadership of youth,\u201d said Coatesville Youth Initiative Director Chaya Scott. \u201cWe want our young people to know how good it feels to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Youth Initiative has become an essential connection between the Foundation and the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it brings people closer together; it brings them together as a family, and they get to see more things,\u201d said Samaria Turner, a participant in the Youth Initiative and Coatesville Area High School student.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Brandywine Health Foundation Board Chairman Harry Lewis Jr. stressed his belief that programs benefitting the youth benefit the community as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter being an employee of the school district for so long, it\u2019s a natural mixture of what going on with community and what\u2019s going on with the kids,\u201d said Lewis, a former Coatesville Area School District assistant principal.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Collins, the Coatesville City Council President, said that he would like to see downtown areas cleaned up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be surprised at what a coat of paint will do,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t make the visual change, people don\u2019t know change is taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

By the end of the night, such teamwork became clear in the many people present and the views they brought with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith people\u2019s input, we can\u2019t help but move forward; I\u2019ve excited with the results,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cWe have a very powerful community. We get put down a lot, but we who live here know it\u2019s the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandywine Health Foundation lays out plans to improve the community By Kyle Carrozza,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times CALN \u2013 Grown adults wrote on tables with markers and constructed spaghetti towers in Coatesville Area High School\u2019s cafeteria Tuesday night at Vision Caf\u00e9 II, an event organized by the Brandywine Health Foundation to improve the health of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[110,258,1575,1900,1901,981,1899,1898],"class_list":["post-4815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-brandywine-health-foundation","tag-coatesville-youth-initiative","tag-county-commissioner-kathi-cozzone","tag-district-justice-greg-hines","tag-frances-m-sheehan","tag-harry-lewis-jr","tag-state-representative-tim-hennessey","tag-vision-cafe-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}