Turning Point Communities

Four communities have participated in the Alaska Turning Point State Partnership, including three awarded grants by the Kellogg Foundation: Sitka, Kenai and Fairbanks, and one: Maniilaq Association in the Northwest Arctic Borough, which was awarded state funds for participation.

These communities participated in the APHIP planning process in 1997-2000, and organized community meetings, projects and activities to identify health concerns in their communities, and strategies for making their communities and residents healthier. The four communities sent representatives to the APHIP Steering Committee and its successor, the Health Alaskans Partnership Council. These representatives continue to play a key role in advising the state Department of Health and Social Services health planning process, which has resulted in the Healthy Alaskans 2010 planning documents.

Community websites for the Turning Point communities include the Fairbanks Info website sponsored and maintained by the Partnership, while others link to publications and projects of the Turning Point partnerships.

Overviews and Links

Sitka:
http://www.cityofsitka.com/ contains a link to the Sitka Community Indicators Report 2002, a project co-sponsored by the Sitka Turning Point Towards Health Partnership and the Island Institute. The URL for the report is http://www.cityofsitka.com/2002ind.pdf. The January 2002 issue of the Journal of Public Health Management Practice reports on the Sitka partnership.

The Sitka Partnership has written a Community Health System Improvement Plan, participated in a national collaborative working on public health governance sponsored by the New York Academy of Medicine, has sponsored community seminars on leadership, worked on the city's strategic planning process, honored "community health heroes," and has met regularly for more than four years with involvement of many residents and local businesses and organizations.

Fairbanks:
The Fairbanks Turning Point Partnership website at http://www.fairbanksinfo.org includes health related data for the Fairbanks North Star Borough, community events and a health resources directory. The Fairbanks partnership has provided a forum with broad participation for discussion of community health, including development and initial implementation of A Blueprint for Transformation of Fairbanks community's health system.

Kenai:
Kenai's Healthy Communities/Healthy People partnership was started in the early 1990s, used the Kellogg grant support when it was available (1997-2001) as seed money and mini-grants for a variety of projects that "turned dreams to reality:" including among the major outcomes a regional transportation system and a community health center.

Maniilaq:
The website at http://www.maniilaq.org/flash.html provides access to information about Maniilaq Association and the eleven communities served. Maniilaq provides public health nursing services in its service area (through agreement with the State of Alaska Division of Public Health/Public Health Nursing Section). The public health nurses and Maniilaq management have participated in the state Turning Point Partnership, and have led community discussions about the health issues of greatest concern and perceptions of a "healthy" community.

For more information on the Turning Point Project, contact Pat Nault.