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Health Director’s Report August 2019 • The Health Equity Council held a successful Health Equity Forum on June 21, 2019 at Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill. Great attendance from elected officials and community members. The forum was facilitated by Deitre Epps, CEO & Founder of Race for Equity, LLC. There was engaging discussion about health equity data, impact of social determinants on current health outcomes and action steps needed to change the current situation. Special Thanks to Board Members Sam Lasris and Jessica Frega for attending. • July 22, 2019 – Mark Benton became the new Director of the Division of Public Health. He was previously the DHHS Deputy Secretary for Health Services. Ben Money now serves as the DHHS Deputy Secretary for Health Services. • I am serving on the Complete Count Committee. The committee is charged with developing a 2020 Census Awareness Campaign to encourage residents to respond. As a health department representative, I will serve on the subcommittee with a focus on hard- to-reach communities. The U.S. Census Bureau recently released results from a survey designed to identify barriers that keep people from participating in the Census. Five primary barriers were reported: o concerns about data privacy and confidentiality o fear of repercussions o distrust in all levels of government o feeling that it doesn’t matter if you are counted o belief that completing the census might not benefit you personally. The committee will work hard to educate the community on the purpose, content and process of the Census. There may be an ‘ask’ of the Board of Health to help in some capacity as we will need trusted voices in the community to assist. • I continue to work closely with the Family Success Alliance staff during the interim time of a vacant program director position. This has given me an opportunity to attend Partner meetings, project team meetings and interact with all program staff more. At the last Advisory Council meeting, the team received approval from the Council to expand their efforts beyond serving families that attend one of the zone schools to serving families that live in either of the two zones (Zone 4 – Hillsborough & Zone 6 – Chapel Hill) currently served by the program. Implementation of the new Family Empowerment Model, which uses a tiered approach to working with families in the Navigator program, should increase capacity a little to allow for this moderate expansion. • July 25-26, 2019 I assisted the Cumberland County Health Department with their interview process for a New Health Director. • The Department hosted 18 students from the Norfolk Academy on August 2, 2019 at the Whitted Building. Students from the Global Health Fellows program were interested in talking with public health professionals about their work, specifically things related to access issues, disparities and innovations. Several staff from the department came to present and answer questions from the students. • I continue to work with the Campus & Community Coalition (CCC) to support efforts to reduce the negative impacts of high-risk drinking. The Coalition Leadership, (Chapel Hill Town Manager, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at UNC-CH and myself), recently