Author: ddev

[Published in Homer News 11/5/14]

MAPP is a roadmap or process for aligning our local community efforts around health improvement goals.  Our community has chosen increasing family well-being as the priority goal for the next few years.  Building resiliency in families increases their well-being.

So what steps can we take to build resiliency?

One way to be a resilient family is to have family members that are physically and mentally well.

We are all more able to deal with the stresses of life when we take care of our mind and body. How do you take care of your mind and body? How can we support one another in doing this?

Our community offers many ways in which to support physical and mental well-being. In addition to our amazing landscape and the well-being that it provides, our community has a rich offering of parks, indoor and outdoor recreation, visual and performing arts, educational programs, cultural events and festivals.

These offerings contribute to our physical and mental well-being by providing an outlet to exercise, develop relationships with others, learn new skills, foster our sense of belonging, and much more.

Since having family members that are physically and mentally well is a priority factor for family resiliency, how can we ensure that all families can access these offerings?

This question is being asked this month by the Parks Art Recreation and Culture (PARC) needs assessment.  The community input to this assessment will help determine the value of PARC activities to the greater Homer community and identify potential resources and strategies to sustain and grow these services so that they are available into the future and accessible to all.

Do you value and use parks, arts, recreation and culture facilities and programs? What additional offerings are needed? What prevents you from accessing existing PARC activities? You can share your input to these questions through a PARC needs assessment survey.

The survey will be available through the end of November and can be done online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HomerPARC or through paper surveys available at City Hall, the Homer Library, Community Recreation office in the Homer High School Commons, and Homer Council on the Arts.

You also can attend the Thursday, Nov. 13, PARC community meeting at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center to hear and discuss initial results of the survey. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the meeting begins at 6 p.m.  For questions about the PARC needs assessment or meeting, contact Julie Engebretsen at 435-3119 or JEngebretsen@ci.homer.ak.us. More information also is available in a flier in today’s Homer News.

To quote Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, “We all do better when we all do better.”

If we eat well, sleep well, exercise, recreate and spend time doing things we enjoy, we are more able to support others in doing the same.  Park, Arts, Recreational and Cultural offerings in our community give us the opportunity to take care of ourselves and others. PARC contributions are an investment in individual and family well-being, thus are an investment in the whole community.

Let’s see how we can make these available to all so that we can all do better.

Megan Murphy is the MAPP coordinator and can be reached at 235-0570 or mappofskp@gmail.com.

 

[Published in Homer News 10/8/14]

MAPP is a roadmap or process for aligning our local community efforts around health improvement goals.  Our community has chosen increasing family well-being as the focus for the next few years.  In order to align our efforts, we need a common understanding and definition of family well-being.

 In Alaska, it is common for individuals to be geographically disconnected from the traditional definition of family — those related by blood, marriage or adoption. For Alaskans, family can include close friends and neighbors that are an integral part of our existence. The definition of family is not exclusive to adults with children. We each get to define family for ourselves which means there are many variations on what this can look like.

Well-being is defined as having a positive social, economic, cultural, educational, psychological, spiritual and/or physical state. For most of us, well-being is not something that is attained and then forever maintained, but a goal to work toward.

How can our community support family well-being?

To answer this question, MAPP reviewed research and inquired with local, state and national experts. The resounding response was that well-being has a great deal to do with our resilience and the ability to cope with stress and thrive despite challenges in life. Resilience comes from having protective factors in our lives that buffer us from these challenges.

Examples of those factors that support an individual’s resilience include having a sense of humor, having the ability to form relationships with peers, having a strong cultural identity, and having opportunities to express feelings through words or music. More protective factors mean greater resilience. If we can increase our resilience, we increase our likelihood of being well.

Many things increase family well-being: having a positive family environment with caregivers that get along, a close relationship with a caring and supportive adult, family members that are physically and mentally well, a stable living environment with adequate income and housing, and having support outside of the home.

In order to align and guide our existing health improvement efforts, MAPP is using the above family protective factors to promote family resilience and well-being. In collaboration with multiple state and local organizations, MAPP hosted a Collective Impact workshop Sept. 29. More than 80 participants from Homer and around the state discussed how their existing efforts align with these protective factors and strategized what near-term steps could be taken to collectively increase family resilience and well-being within our community.

This discussion is not limited to this workshop, but is open to anyone who is interested.  The conversation can start at your own dinner table. We invite you to consider what it is you do, what it is you are passionate about, and how these things might relate or contribute to the family resilience factors mentioned above.

Do you have opportunities to be a role model to a peer or someone younger than you? Can you contribute to the feeling of safety in your neighborhood? Do you take time to take care of yourself — be it through music, meditation, spending time with good friends or going for a walk? If we recognize the things we already do to support our own well-being, it will help us see how these connect to and support the well-being of others.

We all have a choice to participate in our community. What part do you want to play?

As H. E. Luccock, a Methodist minister and Yale professor, put it: “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.”

Megan Murphy is the MAPP coordinator and can be reached at 235-0570 or mappofskp@gmail.com

 

[Published in the Homer News 9/3/14]

We have all seen examples of how “many hands make light work.” Examples that come to mind might involve yard work or weeding a garden, building a house, lifting a heavy piece of furniture or moving to a new house.

The same concept can be applied to lifting hefty issues such as increasing economic stability or providing equal access to community services. While the solutions to social issues may not be as straightforward as loading the UHaul for a move, if more of us focused on the same goals with a shared plan for doing so, we would be able to make progress on these hefty goals.

Our community has many businesses, organizations, and services — especially for its size and location. We’ve got lots of energy going in many directions. In order to address the community’s most important needs, MAPP of the Southern Kenai Peninsula strives to support our community in aligning efforts to more effectively improve community health.

MAPP is not another nonprofit organization, a business, or a division of the government. Rather, it is a roadmap or process for working together so we can more effectively address shared goals. This roadmap involves assessing our strengths and needs and working together to identify and address priority areas for improvement. MAPP has one half-time staff member, a volunteer steering committee that reflects our broad definition of health, and relies on the participation and commitments of community members like you to make things happen.

Many opportunities have become available to our community as a result of using the MAPP roadmap.  Since 2008, this process has led to more community partnerships that have taken on topics ranging from increasing local community gardens to reducing underage drinking.

Recently, we have become a Green Dot community, increasing our awareness, developing our skills, and taking responsibility for safety in situations before an act of violence might occur. The list of opportunities and successes goes on.

Earlier this year, the community selected family well-being as a top priority area to address. Many things impact family life, ranging from education to cost of living, child care to social connections. MAPP is identifying what most impacts families on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

In order to bring in many hands to support this hefty goal, MAPP will be hosting a Collective Impact workshop on Monday, Sept. 29. This workshop will provide a fantastic opportunity to better understand how collectively we can impact tough social issues and how our community can apply it to specific issues here on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

This workshop will be facilitated by the Tamarack Institute, a well-respected charity that develops and supports communities, helping people collaborate and co-create strategies to address complex community challenges. We are extremely fortunate to locally host the Tamarack Institute for this capacity-building and effort-aligning workshop.

Think your efforts or interests are too unrelated to participate? If your individual or professional interests are related to cultural, economic, environmental, mental, physical and/or spiritual health in this community, then please reconsider. All of these perspectives contribute to our well-being, quality of life, and sense of place — all of which are reasons we might choose to live here.

This Collective Impact workshop is free and open to all interested community members; however, seating is limited and registration is required to participate. For more info, please visit www.mappofskp.net or call 235-0570.

Megan Murphy is the MAPP coordinator. She writes that she “strongly believes in our community’s capacity to envision and create the community in which we want to live.”