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From Marty Demarest
Producer, Growing Up Healthy Project Manager
It is thrilling for me to be able to present the launch of Growing
Up Healthy, a media project carried out in partnership by Spokane
Public Radio, the Spokane Regional Health District, and The Pacific
Northwest Inlander. During the course of the next year, it is our
intention to bring to attention many of the challenges faced by
children’s health in our region, and the health care opportunities
we have as a community.
The project began more than a year ago with a grant proposal to
Sound Partners for Community Health - a national organization dedicated
to increasing public awareness of specific health issues and facilitating
citizen’s involvement in health care. Spokane Public Radio approached
the Health District and the Inlander as partners.
It is a sign of the needs of this community that not only did our
partnership receive one of the largest grants possible for a radio
station working with a community organization, but the Inlander
also received one of the first Media Partner Grants ever awarded
by Sound Partners.
Through the enthusiastic participation of the three organizations
and their staffs - particularly Melanie Rose at the Health District,
Pia Hansen at the Inlander, and Doug Nadvornick at Spokane Public
Radio - the project found its current form: a year-long exploration
of children’s health, beginning at birth, and ending at young adulthood.
The project is already underway, having begun in late January with
birth issues. The Jan. 23 issue of the Inlander featured a cover
story on childbirth. The following day, SPR aired a report on the
importance of newborns bonding with adults.
This month, the project continues with special reports on issues
specific to newborns and their parents through the first year of
life.
SPR has planned reports on the effect mothers’ use of drugs such
as methanphedamine has on infants, how the home environment effects
newborns, and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, aka Crib Death).
The first of the project’s call-in forums will be held on Tuesday,
Feb. 25. at noon, broadcast on KPBX.
One of the Inlander’s upcoming issues will include a special article
examining natural childbirth vs. pain-management medication.
All of the materials from the Growing Up Healthy series will be
available on the Growing Up Healthy website, accessible through
kpbx.org.
Throughout the year, the project will explore ways that parents,
children, grandparents, and community members can address many of
the issues we’ll be presenting. We will also organize a leadership
roundtable at the end of the project to confront community and political
leaders with the issues explored during the series.
Ultimately, however, any effect that Growing Up Healthy will have
within our region depends upon YOU, the actions and the attitude
of the people living here. And so as we launch this project, it
is my pleasure to invite you to join us in the process of learning
more about children’s health and health care than we already know.
Read the Inlander. Listen to KPBX and KSFC. Contact the Health District
for further guidance and resources. And then I hope that you do
what this project cannot: take action to improve the health and
health care of children in our community.
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