Homer Alaska - News

What's a healthy community look like? When asked, more than 70 people attending the community health improvement planning workshop at Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center last week had answers.

The two-day activity was sponsored by the Southern Kenai Peninsula Communities Project, a collaborative effort to build a health improvement plan for the peninsula, from Ninilchik south, that draws ideas from the widest possible cross-section of area residents. Workshop participants reflected that goal.

"We had people in their 80s and high school kids; people who have been with us through the whole project and people walking in not really knowing what we were doing," said Sharon Whytal, project director.

Among those attending were Dr. Steve Atwater, superintendent for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District; representatives from Ninilchik; members of the Homer City Council; Homer Police Chief Mark Robl; health professionals; wellness practitioners; teachers; and students.

Facilitators Barbara MacKay and Jess Bogli from Portland, who have experience working together on similar projects, led the workshop. They asked questions, gathered feedback and organize the responses into manageable pieces.

"I think it was a really big step forward in what we're doing. It was exiting to see so many people coming out for it. I'm so very happy with the turnout," Whytal said. "That's the idea of a community assessment. You need input from everybody and you need facilitators to negotiate that input."

The first step was for participants to envision themes for a healthy community that would be found in the next five to 10 years. Those broad, all-encompassing themes included:

* Local, affordable, safe, sustainable, diverse food, energy and water systems;

* A multi-use intergenerational community resource center;

* Collaborative, holistic, accessible health service system;

* Sustainable, affordable, accessible transportation systems;

* A local, sustaining, caring, equitable economy;

* A premiere collaborative, educational, artistic community;

* Resilient, bio-diverse functioning ecosystems; and

* Healthy, safe families.

Then came the opportunity for participants to dissect those visions into smaller pieces. Oddly enough, much of what was offered matched what has already surfaced.

"That was building on input people gave us all this time," said Whytal of the yearlong process of data gathering that has already taken place. "Then we identified what the major barriers were. And then said, OK, let's take each barrier and see how we can work with it to still manifest those visions."

The outcome was strategic directions defining the project's, as well as the community's, future.

"We wrote action steps based on who was there, what each person was willing to do right now and, looking forward two to three years, what would each person be willing to work on and write a few steps as to how they will do that."

Finding strength in numbers, the workshop was an opportunity to forge new partnerships, as evidenced by the involvement of nine high school students from Flex School, accompanied by teacher Jeff Szarzi. The students' vision of a healthy community involved more recreation opportunities; more collaboration with adults; a youth center or a center for all ages for collaboration and fun; a place where students could hang out, shop, play games; more employment opportunities for youth; affordable activities; and assistance for people in poverty and homeless.

"The participants embraced the students in the process and the students appreciated it greatly," Szarzi said. "The youth in our community have voices and they want to be heard."

The project's core group and others that have expressed an interest in becoming involved meet this week to define where the project's momentum leads. A follow-up report from MacKay and Bogli will be posted on the project's Web site when it is received within the next couple of weeks.

"This was really successful in bringing in more people so that we could actually have more of a community voice come through," Whytal said of the workshop. "I think we have enough solid direction and also concrete action steps and timelines that we can keep it moving and keep bringing in new people so that we're addressing things together."

For more information on the Southern Kenai Peninsula Communities Project, see the Web at www.skpcommunitiesproject.net.

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky.@homernews.com.