Healthy County: La Crosse - Annual Health Summits
Beginning in 2009, the Population Health Committee of the La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium planned and held its first half-day Health Summit. Members of the general community as well as coalitions and organizations in La Crosse County tasked with improving some aspect of the population's health were invited.
As a starting point, we looked at the factors that affect our county's rank compared to others in Wisconsin and asked the coalitions attending if they could support a united movement to make La Crosse healthier. They agreed and summits have been held each spring.
For more information about the Health Summit and the Healthiest County Project, contact us at info@lacrosseconsortium.org.
- 2022 Summit
2022 - Loneliness: The Hidden Pandemic
Presentations:
Video: Ryan McKelley - Alone, Together: Social Consequences of COVID Confinement (keynote) and Building Connections for Adults (closed captioned)
View keynote slides
View adult slides
Video: Linda Hall - Building Connections for Youth (closed captioned)
View youth slides
Video: Ellen Rozek - Building Connections for Older Adults (closed captioned)
Suggested Resources:
- Creating your Personal Sociogram
- The Social Connection Planner
- Book: Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope by Johann Hari (Bloomsbury Publishing)
- How is Wisconsin responding to social isolation and loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic? Results from an Extension survey of partner organizations
- Healthy Screen Time in a Digital World
- Office of Children's Mental Health 2021 Annual Report
- Strengthening Social Connections and Relationships
- Rebuilding Peer Connections
- Responding to COVID Changes at School
- Feelings Thermometer
- Volunteer Opportunities: UGETCONNECTED (Great Rivers United Way)
- Sources of Strength
- 2019 Summit
2019 -Intersection of Health: The Impact of Poverty and Racism
Presentations included:
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Understanding the Whole Picture (Shaundel Spivey)
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Dismantling New Age Racism: Acknowledging Biases and Practicing Empathy (Uttara Manohar)
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La Crosse Youth System of Care: A snapshot of the Impacts of Poverty and Race (Bridget Todd-Robbins)
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Poverty Informed Practice in Higher Education (Chad Dull)
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Find resources…Get answers…Get connected (Mary Mundt Reckase)
View 2019 slides
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- 2018 Summit
2018 - Reimagine Health...Nurturing Deeper Roots
Keynote speaker Gary Gunderson (Bio) took a deeper dive into the five leading causes of life and how to incorporate these principles into our work/home life. Closing Speaker: Michael Brandt (Bio) tied together resilience and positive health psychology.
View 2018 slides
- 2017 Summit
2017 – Reimagine Health…Leading Causes of Life
Matthew Bersagel-Braley (Associate Professor, Chair, M.A. in Servant Leadership, Viterbo University) was the keynote speaker and introduced the concept of the five leading causes of life. He shared a new view of and approach to health that can influence how we advance our work, relationships, personal well-being and community.
"The leading causes of life is not merely the activities that extend our lives by a year, but the activities that are daily life-giving and help us to appreciate who we are, where we are, and why we are." ~ Gary Gunderson
Other presenters included:
Project Proven: Tonya Van Tol (Western Technical College)
Family and Children’s Center Host Homes Program: Tita Yutuc (Family and Children’s Center)
La Crosse Collaborative to End Homelessness: Kim Cable (Couleecap) and Mary Jacobson (Catholic Charities)
GRACE Hub: Jen Rombalski (La Crosse County Health Department) and Mary Kay Wolf (Great Rivers United Way)
La Crosse Police Department - Neighborhood Resource Officers (Washburn Neighborhood): Officers Dan Ulrich and Tyler Rachwal
La Crosse Area Family Collaborative
- 2016 Summit
The summit’s focus was on how health is impacted by housing, transportation, food systems, and neighborhoods. Tom Thibodeau (Director of Master of Arts of Servant Leadership, Viterbo University) was the keynote speaker and shared the importance of building relationships for a healthy community.
2015 Bright Spots:
2015 Accomplishments
Powerpoint Presentations
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Reimagine
Health -
Health in
Housing -
Health in
Transportation -
Health in
Neighborhoods -
Health in
Food
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- 2015 Summit
Discovering our Culture of Health
The key note speaker was Karen Timberlake, Director of the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Karen spoke on 1) Establishing a transformative vision for La Crosse – Building a Culture of Health, 2) Committing to connecting our efforts through collective impact and 3) Going deeper rather than broader – identify common root causes for health challenges and work across sectors, across initiatives, to address them.
Denyse Olson-Dorff presented on the impact Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), which changes how we think about medical care and how to improve the physical and mental health of populations.
2014 Bright Spots:
2014 Accomplishments:
View 2015 slides
- 2014 Summit
Health Equity: The Opportunity for health begins in our families, neighborhoods, schools and jobs
Jordan Bingham (Health Equity Coordinator for Public Health - Madison & Dane County) was the keynote speaker and spoke on "Local Health through an Equity Lens: Addressing the social determinants of health through policy, programs and partnerships."
Bright Spots 2013:
- 2013 Summit
The fifth annual summit focused on the collective impact our partner's work related to the Healthy County plan. The summit reflected on how far we have come, where we are now, and where we want to go into the future. The "Dashboard" was debuted.
Karen Timberlake (Director of Population Health Institute at University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine and Public Health) was the keynote speaker and shared an inspirational talk on "Connecting Community Capacity."
- View the Health Summit slides
- View Collective Impact Article
- View Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work Article
- View the 2012 Accomplishments power point
Bright Spots 2012:
- 2012 Summit
Awakening the Power in our Community!
John McKnight (Co-Director, Asset-Based Community Development Institute) shared his expertise on how we can discover and utilize the assets right here in La Crosse County to strengthen our current and future community based projects, activities, and proposals.
- View Discovering Community Power: A Guide to Mobilizing Local Assets and Your Organization's Capacity
- View A Twenty-First Century Map for Healthy Communities and Families
- View Health Summit slides
- 2011 Summit
The focus of the third annual Health Summit in March 2011 was how we as partners inform our communities about health. The Population Health Committee selected a tagline for promoting the Healthiest County 2015: La Crosse effort, "Making the Healthy Choice Together," that emphasizes that we cannot be our healthiest selves without the help of others, and that the decisions of individuals working together can influence the entire community.
Mandy Nogle, a Master’s of Public Health candidate at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, was a featured speaker at the 2011 Summit and presented the Communication Toolkit she created during her preceptorship with the Consortium. Mandy spoke about how to inform our communities about the Healthiest County 2015: La Crosse project using ideas and data offered in the toolkit. Each breakout session then focused on how they could use the Communication Toolkit within their own field of community health improvement. The 2011 Health Summit concluded with a challenge issued to all partners in the project to try to achieve 750,000 individual media impressions before the 2012 Health Summit.
Watch Mandy Nogle’s presentation highlighting accomplishments in 2010
Communication Toolkit
- 2010 Summit
At the second annual Health Summit in May of 2010, we brought together existing partners plus many new ones to introduce our new Health Improvement Plan, review our progress, look in detail at some new strategies, and organize subgroups that will continue implementing the Plan.
- View the Health Summit program slides.
Dr. Seth Foldy, Health Officer for the State of Wisconsin, was our keynote speaker at the 2010 Summit, and spoke on the impact of health policy on health decision-making.
- See Dr. Seth Foldy's PowerPoint presentation.
- View the Tobacco Policy slides from Paula Silha's presentation.
- 2009 Summit
The Population Health Committee of the La Crosse Medical Health Science Consortium planned and held its first half-day Health Summit on April 24, 2009, which brought together members of the general community as well as coalitions and organizations in La Crosse County tasked with improving some aspect of the population's health. As a starting point, we looked at the factors that affect our county's rank compared to others in Wisconsin and asked the coalitions attending if they could support a united movement to bring La Crosse County's rank to number one in the state by 2015. They agreed.
- View the PowerPoint presentation shown at the summit that explains the project. View slides.
- Shared online Health Scorecard
In 2009, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Wisconsin's County Health Rankings model was introduced nationwide. As a result, the way in which county health rankings are calculated has changed. Despite the change, we are continuing with our work in our four selected focus areas of Chronic Disease, Mental Health, Infectious Disease, and Injury and Violence. Visit the nationwide County Health Rankings site here: www.countyhealthrankings.org.