Princeton Senior Resource Center Annual Holiday Dinner 2017

Earlier this year I met Susan Hoskins Executive Director of the Princeton Senior Resource Center (PSRC) during an event at the Arts Council of Princeton.

http://www.princetonsenior.org/

After a phone conversation I accepted her invite to the Annual Holiday Dinner that took place at The Suzanne Patterson Building 42 Stockton Street, 179 Spruce Circle (off Harrison St) in Princeton NJ.

During my visit I saw 140 members of the community gathered together for a holiday meal.  The meal was provided by Acorn Glen and PSRC.  Attendees were entertained by the music of Dave Saltzman (piano) Bob and Bill Klezmer as well as entertainment by Santa and the Ho Ho Ho's.  

Susan mentioned that "the attendees come from all over this diverse community and the surrounding, connecting with people they share a class or group with, or with neighborhood friends.  For some this is their only holiday party.  The mood is joyful and filled with gratitude."  

She went on to mention that "PSRC is the go-to resource for aging well!  We provide a wide array of programs and services for aging adults and family caregivers." 

During my visit I chatted with several of the attendees, volunteers, staff and board.  I will be returning at a later date to follow up with the table tennis group and some of the local organizations.  

Building a Culture of Health in NJ Conference : A Systems Approach To Promoting Population Health

When I consider that NJ is the most densely populated state in the country it leads me to consider how this reflects throughout the nation.

http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-densely-populated-u-s-states.html

Recently I visited a Health Conference in Edison NJ.

The conference was co-sponsored by the New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids, New Jersey Department of Health, Rutgers University Family & Community Health Sciences, Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, American Academy of Pediatrics—NJ Chapter, Atlantic Health System, Family Health Initiatives, Mental Health Association in New Jersey, Inc., New Jersey Health Initiatives, New Jersey Hospital Association, New Jersey YMCA State Alliance, Partners for Health Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Salem Health & Wellness Foundation.

Several years ago I was introduced to NJ Partnership for Healthy Kids via programming in Trenton NJ.  Have a listen to a recent chat with Project Manager Marissa Davis and State Program Director Dr. Darrin Anderson captured during the event.

https://soundcloud.com/trenton365/marissa-davis-greenwood-ave 

https://soundcloud.com/trenton365/darrin-anderson-ph-d-st-prog

Building a Culture of Health in NJ Conference Promoted Best Practices for Healthy Communities

Largest NJ Public Health Conference Featured Physician & Social Media Maven Dr. Mike and four-time Olympian, NJ Hall of Fame Inductee Joetta Clark Diggs

Edison, NJ –November 29, 2017 – More than 500 public health professionals, social workers, educators, dieticians, and community leaders from across the state came together for the Building a Culture of Health in New Jersey: A Systems Approach to Promoting Population Health Conference on Wednesday, November 29 at the Pines Manor in Edison, N.J from 9:00 am – 3:30 pm.

Local experts led 12 exciting morning and afternoon workshops on a variety of public health topics including: youth and mental health, social-emotional learning, the healthcare needs of the underserved immigrant and LGBTQIA populations, the Opiate epidemic and advancing policies to create a Culture of Health.  For a complete conference agenda, click here.

“Our goal is to help communities create policy and environmental changes that address social determinants of health and improve overall health outcomes for New Jersey families,“ stated Dr. Darrin Anderson, State Program Director, New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids (NJPHK).

The daylong conference also featured two nationally recognized dynamic keynote speakers –social media maven Dr. Mikhail (Mike) Varshavski D.O. and four-time Olympic runner and New Jersey native Joetta Clark Diggs.  

Better known as ‘Doctor Mike,’ Dr. Varshavski is a family medicine physician and philanthropist based out of New York and has a massive following of 3.5 million on social networks including 2.6 million on Instagram. Doctor Mike uses his platform to encourage medical students and to educate people on important primary healthcare topics. He has appeared on television programs such as The Doctors and Dr. Oz and has also contributed to multiple popular online publications (Shape, Women’s Health, Livestrong).

Clark Diggs is a four-time Olympian, Motivational Extraordinaire and NJ Hall of Fame Inductee who had a successful 24-year career as a competitive 800-meter and 1500-meter runner, winning many collegiate, national, and world championships. Along with her decorated running career, Clark Diggs is a physical health and wellness advocate for children and teens nationwide.

Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers also was recognized as this year’s Culture of Health Award recipient.  The award acknowledged how the organization’s data-driven care and support services “hot spotting” model for Camden’s high utilizers of healthcare helped to reduce the average monthly hospital billing of $1.2 million to just over $500,000.

The late Dr. Mary Ann Schierer also was posthumously recognized for her work in evaluation, performance measures, research and other uses of data to help agencies improve outcomes.

The conference was co-sponsored by the New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids, New Jersey Department of Health, Rutgers University Family & Community Health Sciences, Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, American Academy of Pediatrics—NJ Chapter, Atlantic Health System, Family Health Initiatives, Mental Health Association in New Jersey, Inc., New Jersey Health Initiatives, New Jersey Hospital Association, New Jersey YMCA State Alliance, Partners for Health Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Salem Health & Wellness Foundation.

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About New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids  

New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids (NJPHK) is a statewide program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with technical assistance and direction provided by the New Jersey YMCA State Alliance. The goal of the program is to convene, connect and empower community partnerships across the state to design and implement childhood obesity prevention strategies that support access to affordable healthy foods and increase opportunities for safe physical activity in the cities of Camden, Newark, New Brunswick, Trenton, and Vineland. For more information, visit:  www.njhealthykids.org. Follow NJPHK on Twitter and Facebook.  

About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the largest private foundation in New Jersey and the nation’s largest philanthropy working to improve the health and health care of all. The Foundation is striving to build a national Culture of Health that will enable all to live longer, healthier lives now and for generations to come. RWJF has invested more than $1.5 billion in New Jersey since 1972. For more information, visit http://www.rwjf.org/nj. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at http://www.rwjf.org/twitter or Facebook at http://www.rwjf.org/facebook.

A few images from my visit.

Princeton & Slavery

RACE and everything around the subject is on the minds and lips of many and the Princeton Region is no different.  Over the w.e. I attended the Princeton & Slavery events in partnership with McCarter Theater.

https://www.mccarter.org/PrincetonandSlavery/

Weekend events will also include McCarter Theatre’s world premiere of “The Princeton and Slavery Plays,” seven newly-commissioned short plays based on historical documents uncovered as a part of the research project. Playwrights include:  Nathan Alan Davis, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Dipika Guha, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ’06, Kwame Kwei-Armah, McCarter Artistic Director and Resident Playwright Emily Mann, and Regina Taylor.

http://arts.princeton.edu/events/princeton-slavery-project-symposium/2017-11-17/

After the Sunday performance I chatted with local Afro-Pop Artist Karey Maurice while traveling to his Red Balloon Studios.  One of the subjects included "what are the next steps."

On Monday Karey and I attended the Princeton & Slavery - A Post Show Community Conversation with Not in Our Town Princeton   The conversation was held at the Princeton Public Library with attendance over 70 ppl.  After brief introductions we gathered into small groups of ~10 and chatted about the pre-selected questions.

Sorry no audio regarding the conversations as per the organizations policy, therefore you will need to do some work!

Mercer Street Friends Food Bank

Recently I spent some time at Mercer Street Friends Food Bank. 

During my visit I chatted with Food Bank Director Dr. Denalerie Johnson-Faniel about this segment of the organization specifically the programs offered.

Have a listen to our chat.
https://soundcloud.com/trenton365/denalerie-johnson-faniel-food

During my visit I received a tour of the distribution process and captured some images of the volunteers and a few of the 80+ partnering organizations. 

During my chats with Dr. Johnson-Faniel and Executive Director Armstead Johnson I was enlightened about the programs offered and the scope of their business as the main distributor of food to large and small entities throughout Mercer County NJ.

Earlier this year I chatted with Mercer Street Friends Executive Director Armstead Johnson about the org. as a whole.  You can hear those conversations below.

https://soundcloud.com/trenton365/armstead-johnson-executive

https://soundcloud.com/trenton365/armstead-johnson-executive-1

In closing if food justice is something that interests you I suggest you contact either Dr. Denalerie Johnson-Faniel or Executive Director Armstead Johnson for more information.

In the interim have a look at some images capture from my most recent visit.