A New Community Directory of Services
Now on the Internet:
www.trh-fd.org/infonet

The Community Health and Human Services Needs Assessment conducted in 1996 indicated that citizens and families in Fort Dodge were have difficulty finding information on available community programs, services and resources. Responding to this need, the Community Action Network conducted a comprehensive community inventory for the purpose of developing a well organized, easy to use directory of organizations, agencies, programs and services. In November 1997, InfoNet became a reality. InfoNet includes over 500 listings services, programs, resources, organizations and agencies throughout the greater Fort Dodge-Webster County area. InfoNet is updated three times a year to ensure that the information remains current and accurate.

InfoNet is installed on computers at 55 different sites at various health and human service agencies, schools, and in the Fort Dodge Public Library. This puts information and assistance right at the fingertips of health and human service providers, helping them in identifying community resources for citizens, youth and families.

InfoNet is also on the Internet and available to all citizens free of charge. The directory has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible. There is no charge to access the database, and the public may do so quickly and confidentially, as often as necessary. A simple keyword search is used to access the information. The InfoNet web site is: http://www.trh-fd.org/infonet. InfoNet is also listed and linked on the DodgeNet home page under Community Pages and under the City of Fort Dodge home page.

HealthPartners

Funded by the Community Action Network, this program is a partnership between Trinity Regional Hospital and several community partners that provides community health promotion, health screening and health education services and programs in our community and region. Utilizing a new mobile health services van, HealthPartners plays a major leadership role in promoting health and wellness, emphasizing prevention and providing community health education and self care programs to improve the health status of the community. Collaborating with several other providers of health and human services, HealthPartners offers a comprehensive, coordinated and collaborative approach for promoting healthy lifestyles and delivering health promotion, health education, wellness and other prevention services.

HealthPartners provides specific programming for the agricultural population through the AgriSafe program. Public health statistics indicate that farming is one of the most dangerous occupations in our country, yet traditionally, farmers have received minimal assistance with regard to health and safety programming. To address this need, HealthPartners has been designated one of seven AgriSafe programs in Iowa by the University of Iowa's Center for Agricultural Health and Safety. The AgriSafe program partners with the Webster County/ISU Extension Service to provide coordinated health and safety programming for farmers in the north central and northwest Iowa regions. The program is able to offer targeted health education, safety programs and comprehensive health screening services to the farming community.

For more information, call HealthPartners at 574-6100

Safe Kids Coalition

Through a collaborative effort of child care providers in our community, this coalition has been established to address child care and child development issues in our community. The Coalition is focused on enhancing the quality, availability and affordability of child care in our community. The Coalition for Kids is addressing opportunities to expand and improve child care and to enhance early childhood development programming in the community.

For more information, call the Community Action Network at 574-6433.

Fort Dodge Leadership Initiative

This initiative, supported by the Community Action Network, is focused on four objectives:

1. The need for community leadership to be visionary, innovative, forward thinking and positive.
2. The need for community leadership in the areas of health, education, government, business, human services, church and civic organizations to collaborate in strategic planning for future community growth and development.
3. The need for continuous development of new leadership.
4. The need for community leadership to develop a shared vision and a common plan for community growth and future development.

Parenting Task Force

In April of 1997, the Community Action Network organized a Parenting Task Force to begin addressing the need for developing a quality parenting education and support network for the community that would be comprehensive, collaborative and effective. Representatives from fifteen different community organizations and agencies that were involved in some aspect of parenting education or support came together to being the collaborative process of developing a plan for the community.

The first two projects coordinated by the Parenting Task Force were free educational events called Parent Universities. The first Parent University was held in October of 1997 and featured Dr. Donald Draayer from the Minneapolis-based Search Institute as the keynote speaker. Following Dr. Draayer's address, parents chose three 30-minute breakout educational sessions to attend (from a list of 21 different subjects). Free child care was provided, pizza and drinks were available prior to the evening sessions, and a drawing for a new Pentium computer was held. Registered attendance was 322.

Because of the success of the first Parent University, Parent University II was held in April of 1998. A similar format was followed, however the breakout sessions were lengthened to 45 minutes and parents chose 2 sessions to attend from a list of 17 topics. Registered attendance at this event was approximately half of what was experienced with the first Parent University. The Parenting Task Force has not sponsored any subsequent Parent Universities, but has a very workable model for future use.

The focus in 1998 was to develop and implement a new comprehensive parenting education program that would be offered to the community on Monday nights from 7 PM to 8:30 PM, September through April. This weekly, comprehensive parenting program was titled "Raising Healthy Children". A wide range of educational subjects and themes were presented, with some classes providing both a parent and children's component. The cost was $5.00 per family per course but scholarships were available. Again, free child care was provided. Participation in these weekly programs was disappointing indicating to the Parenting Task Force that this format needed to be reconsidered.

During June, July and August of 1999, the Task Force sponsored free "Summer Family Fun Nights". The idea was to provide fun, outdoor, family-centered activities at various locations throughout our city. "Celebrating the Arts" took place in June on the Fort Dodge City Square. In July, "Family Swim Night" was held at a local pool and in August a "Family Nature Night" was held at an area park. For each event there were approximately 200 in attendance. Our goal is to continue with these summer family-focused activities.

Our most recent endeavor has been to implement a parenting curriculum designed specifically for Promised Job clients. Promised Job clients are required to attend parenting education classes and the Parenting Task Force was asked to take the lead in the organization and implementation of their required curriculum. Therefore, in September of 1999, we initiated an 8-week program designed to fulfill the Promised Job requirements. We chose to title this program again "Raising Healthy Children". However, the unique aspect of these classes was that they were broadcast to 7 different sites throughout our North Central Iowa region via the Iowa Communications Network (ICN), weekly from 10 AM to 12 Noon. Participants could attend the classes at the broadcast site most convenient for them. Not only were Promised Job clients in attendance, but we also attracted a sizeable number of community members. Because of the positive response to this format of "Raising Healthy Children", we have enhanced the curriculum and will be offering the program again in the Spring of 2000.

Since its inception in 1997, the Parenting Task Force has grown to a coalition of greater than 30 community agencies, organizations and committed individuals that are focused on providing comprehensive parenting education and support for parents and families in the Fort Dodge community.

For more information about the Fort Dodge SAFE Coalition, call the Community Action Network, 574-6433.

School-Based Youth Services:

Through a collaborative planning effort, School-Based Youth Services (Bridges) has been completely restructured to meet the needs of all students, K-12. Funded by Allowable Growth Funds through the Fort Dodge Public Schools, with support from the Community Action Network, Bridges provides and coordinates health, social and case management services in the schools and collaborates with outside agencies to bring additional community services into the schools to help youth meet their fullest potential academically and as future citizens. Bridges has implemented case management services to assist at-risk students and help them overcome many personal and social obstacles preventing them from achieving at their highest level. Bridges has also established a new community-youth mentoring program to link students with caring and responsible adults. In addition, a school-based health clinic has been implemented to provide health care services to students who are unable to access the health care system.

As part of this initiative, the Community Action Network is funding a new position, community-school nurse. This licensed nurse works closely with school nurses to link services with students and their families by providing in-home nursing and case management services and assisting families in accessing the health care, mental health and social services they badly need.

For more information, call Bridges at 574-5458.