Event One: Strengthening Our Practice: Refining Our Aim __________________________________________________________________________ Ask Us About - 1.2 Miami __________________________________________________________________________
West Virginia Coordinated School Health
The West Virginia Coordinated
School-Public Health Partnership
West Virginia Department of Education and Bureau for Public Health
In the spring of 2009, leaders from the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ (WVDHHR) Bureau for Public Health formed the West Virginia Coordinated School-Public Health Partnership (CSPHP) with the goal of implementing the Coordinated School Health Program recommendations adopted by the West Virginia Board of Education in a January 2009 Position Statement. The Board states that it believes the schools can play an important role in shaping students’ health behaviors and that it is the Board’s desire to have wellness as a priority issue in all schools. The Board encourages all county boards of education to promote and advance the coordination of health programs and services by using a coordinated school health approach that brings together the resources of families, schools, and communities to help students stay healthy and make the most of their educational opportunities.
While the Board’s Position Statement recommendations focus on local coordination of school health efforts, the CSPHP has based its work on a concept of using existing regional health promotion resources and staff as a springboard for providing support for local coordination of school health efforts. The CSPHP has taken on the challenge of building this capacity entirely on existing resources; no new funding or staff is being proposed for this initiative. Keeping that in mind, the state CSPHP is developing a framework that will tap into all applicable regional staff and resources that can contribute to the CSPHP goals. The plan is to bring regional staff and resources together to form regional CSPHP teams and provide them sustained support and professional development targeted at building their collective knowledge, skills and capacity to provide county wellness councils with facilitation and assistance to make their schools healthy.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT
Melanie Purkey
Executive Director, Office of Healthy Schools
West Virginia Department of Education mpurkey@access.k12.wv.us
304.558.8830
