Washington Global Health Alliance Programs
1)
Global Health Nexus, Seattle, is an initiative of WGHA. Nexus brings together community stakeholders from the business, research, public, academic, philanthropic and NGO sectors to further develop Seattle's place as a premier location for global health work. By broadening and engaging the audience for major global health events in the region - including a global health celebration to be held in conjuction with the 50th anniversary of the Seattle World's Fair - Nexus will also showcase the breadth and depth of Washington global health activity.
2) Members of the
Global to Local partnership are working together to develop a new community-based healthcare program to better educate and inform residents in South King County. This includes, but is not limited to, training and developing community health workers, partnering with cities to link health with economic development programming, mobilizing community-based organizations to make it easier for residents to select and choose healthier foods for their families, generating educational campaigns around priority health issues and using technologies and communications tools to transform practices.
Swedish, the largest and most comprehensive non-profit medical provider in the Greater Seattle area, has committed $1 million in funding to the initiative.
Currently, the partnership is working in conjunction with area community colleges to develop curriculums in community care-giving in line with the principals of the initiative. Seattle’s Northwest Securities has committed to providing financial and economic development council for the initiative.
In addition to Swedish’s institutional support, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) Subcommittee, included funding to boost the Global to Local Health Initiative in the Fiscal Year 2011 LHHS Appropriations bill. Public Health - Seattle & King County has also contributed to the initiative by developing a program manager position to oversee the project.
Additional partners within the Tukwila and SeaTac communities are supporting
Global to Local to learn and educate the partners about the needs and strengths of the community. These organizations include City Human Services Managers for SeaTac & Tukwila, Community Schools Collaboration, Highline Youth Clinic, Lutheran Community Services, Riverton Park United Methodist Church, New Futures, New Hope Health Clinic and Somali Health Care & Prevention.2) WGHA realized the importance of having a high school component to support the goal of promoting Washington as a center for global health.
3) With support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
WGHA Ambassadors was created so that high school students could have access to interdisciplinary global health learning in science, math, and social studies.
WGHA partners are working shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers, students and the communities in four pilot schools:
- Cleveland High School
- Blaine High School
- Health Sciences and Human Services High School
- Toppenish High School
WGHA Ambassadors is working to create curriculum within a professional learning community comprised of many of the state’s most successful curriculum developers. The aim is to ensure that this resource is valuable to, and widely used by, teachers. Teachers within the four high schools are participating in intensive training at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. Graduate-level credit for Ambassadors has been made available to teachers through Washington State University.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Global Health Nexus is partnering with the Seattle Center and Next Fifty to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the World's Fair. Among the campaigns being developed to raise awareness of global health in our region is an education campaign to challenge students to engage in global health.
The Be The Change student competition is a contest for teams of 3 or more high school, community college or undergraduate students in Washington state to create solutions, awareness and innovation in global health.
Students are required to choose a project that develops a global health solution or engages and motivates communities in support of global health and build a team to gather creative ideas using technology, social media, the arts, education and more.
Proposals are due mid January, 2012. Prizes to winning teams include VIP visits and recognition as part of Next 50.