The Office of Preparedness and Emergency Management (OPEM) has created a resource guide to assist in public health preparedness planning for individuals with disabilities and others with access and functional needs. The resource guide will be updated quarterly and can be found on the DPH website: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/programs/emergency-prep/additional-access-needs/.
Archive | September, 2015
Children in Disasters Conference Presentations
This groundbreaking conference is designed for all emergency response professionals, planners and other professionals in western Massachusetts, who need to consider the safety and well-being of children as they plan for, respond to and recover from any all-hazard incident, disaster or event.
The workshop presentations are available on the WRHSAC website.
Welcome New Staff!
We are excited to welcome two new staff members to the FRCOG!
Melissa Ward is the new Prevention Strategies Coordinator for the Partnership for Youth. She will be working closely with the Communities That Care Coalition, chairing the Policy and Practice Change Workgroup and overseeing strategies implemented under PFY’s state Substance Abuse Prevention Collaborative (SAPC) and federal STOP Act grants. She has many years of experience working in special education and brings expertise in working with schools and at-risk youth.
Jessica McMillin is the new Public Health and Transportation Planner. She will share her time between Partnership for Youth, where she will work on community-level strategies under the 1422 project, and Transportation Planning where she will assist with a variety of projects. Jessica graduated from Amherst College this past May, and brings with her experience in public health and transportation planning.
Hurricane Preparedness
We may not live in Florida, but even in western Massachusetts we need to know how to prepare for hurricanes!
Here are some great resources to help you prepare:
Tobacco-21 progress in Franklin County
Charlemont, Shelburne, Montague, Leverett, Greenfield, Gill and Whately have passed measures to raise the age to purchase tobacco to 21. The Tobacco-21 effort to reduce youth smoking is gaining traction in Massachusetts, with 72 towns signed on by summer’s end. Raising access to age 21 not only restricts teens’ ability to buy tobacco, but decreases social access by putting legal purchasers outside the social circle of most high school students.
CTC at National Collaborative on Education & Health
On August 19th, the Franklin County/North Quabbin Communities That Care Coalition was represented at the National Collaborative on Education and Health’s Substance Use Working Group. Coalition Co-Chair Kat Allen presented as part of a panel and participated in the day-long discussion leading to policy recommendations for the nation on how to best integrate substance use prevention into the schools.
