HBCAT AWARDED $10,000 Walmart Grant for GNAT

The Healthy Bourbon County Action Team was recently awarded grant funds on behalf of The Good Neighbor Action Team (GNAT). GNAT will be using the awarded $10,000 to buy materials and tools to continue their efforts to meet the needs of the community by maintaining property standards, home ownership accountability, and restoring the historic appearance and value of Fort Scott. For the past 15 years GNAT has been part of numerous beautification projects. They have several projects that continue throughout the year. Some examples of these projects include: mowing yards, painting houses, repainting crosswalks and handicap spaces downtown. GNAT focus on helping clients who are over the age of 62, single parent homes, disabled citizens, and veterans. GNAT is encouraging the community to join the team, if interested, and follow their Facebook page at @fortscottgnat.

CEO’s Message: Evidence-Based tools and Promising practices make for lasting impacts

The Healthy Bourbon County Action Team is more than a grant writing organization. While funds are a critical piece in moving our mission forward, our main purpose is to address our community’s poor health outcomes through policy, systems, and environmental changes. Special programs and education are an important piece to building healthier communities, but without addressing upstream causes of poor health outcomes we will never get ahead.

We have limited resources as a community. Therefore, we must be strategic in our efforts. Our work to change the context to make an individual’s default decision healthy and to also address socioeconomic factors increases population impact with minimal individual effort needed.

A smoke free multi-unit housing policy ensures a healthier living situation (environment) for both smokers and non-smokers alike. I have a strong opinion that just because you are on a fixed income doesn’t mean you should have to live in unhealthy housing conditions, breathing in secondhand smoke through cracks and ventilation systems, with yellow stained ceilings, and offensive odor in the carpets and walls. We have played an instrumental role in building community referral systems for individuals ready to quit by providing training and certification for tobacco cessation specialists in the region. These services are critical to overcoming such a powerful addiction.

“The Kansas Health Institute has produced individual county profiles that include a five-year comparison of County Health Rankings data and the “drivers,” or measures with the greatest impact, on the rankings in each county.”

https://www.khi.org/policy/article/2021-CHR

HBCAT Hosts successful events encouraging female entrepreneurship

HBCAT quarterly events, a series called: Dare to Dream: Women Supporting Women Entrepreneurs,” have shown to be very successful. A volunteer committee, made of women entrepreneurs who have a strong desire to share knowledge and guidance to mentor new and upcoming entrepreneurs, are dedicating time and resources to support and lift up other women. The team promotes the sincere desire to help connect up- and-coming female entrepreneurs with women leaders to learn from their successes and failures. We have goals to develop and nurture these relationships into mentoring. Our mantra is, “Get to know local business women who want to help you succeed!”

The first of the four-part series had a general focus on the basics of starting a business, “Start-Up Businesses: A Broad Overview.” Keynote speaker, Dacia Clark of PSU SBDC, engaged the audience providing relevant information and answering many questions like, “how do business owners obtain health insurance?”

The second in the series topic was, “Online Marketing and E-Commerce.” We had 71 registers and 35 attend. The event was also broadcast live on YouTube. Keynote Speaker, Kelly Perry with Perry’s Pork Rinds and Hound Nutrition, shared insights into social media and what has helped their success.

Other topics and panel speakers included:

• Email Distribution, Lindsay Madison, Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce: Discover the right platforms and how to make technology work for you!
• Influencer Marketing, Instagram and E-Commerce, Erin Vann, Highway 3: YES—You can conquer e-commerce too!!
• SEO, Mindy Lee, PSU SBDC: S. E. What? Why knowing these three little initials matter to your up and coming business!

In order to remove barriers to attending, childcare and dinner are provided free of cost.

Communities creating innovative systems

Uniontown School District and Girard Medical center collaborate to increase access to medical care

Girard Medical Center’s Uniontown Clinic (GMC) has been open for patients since the beginning of May 2021. It is located south of the USD 235 football field, at 401 Fifth Street.

Stephanie Hallacy, APRN has worked with the team at Girard Medical Center since 2013 as a nurse practitioner. She has hands on experience in the clinics as well as in the Express Care. Hallacy received her 1994 associate degree in nursing from Grayson County College in Denison, TX, her bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Oklahoma, and her master of science in nursing from Pittsburg State University in 2012.

Lori Reith works as the medical assistant in the Uniontown Clinic. Reith’s education was as an emergency medical technician. She has cross-trained and obtained certification in the lab to meet patient needs close to home. She was a phlebotomist for 15 years and recently worked for the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas in Iola.

Candi Adams, RN is the director of clinic operations, with Dr. Adam Paoni, DO who serves as the medical director.

GMC of Uniontown is a walk-in clinic and also provides primary care. Additional services include: well—woman exams, sports and pre-school physicals, lab draws (with any physician order), and rapid testing for strep, flu, Covid, hemoglobin, blood sugar, urine, pregnancy and occult blood.

Clinic hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The clinic is closed each day between noon and 1 p.m.

To schedule an appointment call: 620.756.4111

Visit online at: www.girardmedicalcenter.com