Welcome to the newest members of Live Well Allegheny! In November, we designated Cornell School District as our newest school, Giant Eagle, Focus on Renewal, and Auberle as our newest workplaces, and Eighty Acres Kitchen & Bar as our newest restaurant. Thank you for committing to health and wellness in Allegheny County!

Happy holidays from Live Well Allegheny! The holidays are a time for celebration and tradition. This year, start a new tradition of celebrating good health. We all tend to participate in bad health habits over the holidays. Overeating, lack of physical activity, and stress can have negative consequences for your health and happiness. Check out these tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for ideas on how to have a healthy and safe holiday. Looking to start a healthy family tradition this holiday season? Allegheny County Parks offer a variety of opportunities for winter physical activity. Ice skating at North Park or skiing at Boyce Park are great options for keeping your family active this winter.

Regular physical activity fosters normal growth and development, reduces the risk of chronic diseases, and helps people feel, function, and sleep better. Wondering how much physical activity your family should be getting? The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2^nd edition was just released and outlines the amounts and types of physical activity necessary to improve or maintain health. Use the guide for information on the benefits of physical activity, strategies for being more active, consequences of sedentary behavior, and more!

Do you have an event coming up? Please let us know so we can add it to the Live Well Allegheny event calendar. Contact Marie Fontelo (Marie.Fontelo@AlleghenyCounty.US) with details. And don’t forget to check the partner resources page of the web site for additional resources.

Like and follow the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) on Facebook to stay up-to-date on all the ACHD news.

Karen Hacker, MD, MPH
Director, Allegheny County Health Department

ACHD’s Chronic Disease Prevention Program is now offering Parents in the Know trainings. Parents in the Know is an innovative practice-based child sexual abuse prevention program that helps parents, guardians, caregivers, and other adults build, practice and strengthen skills to prevent child sexual abuse. These skills include: promoting safe and respectful behaviors, recognizing questionable behaviors in adults, and talking with children about respectful relationships, age-appropriate sexual development, sexual abuse prevention and healthy sexuality.

If you are interested in holding a Parents in the Know training, please contact Leah Pope at leah.pope@alleghenycounty.us.

Congratulations to Allies for Children, a Live Well Allegheny Community Partner, for increasing access to breakfast in five Allegheny County school districts! Allies for Children, in partnership with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and with funding from the Henry Hillman Foundation, is piloting grab and go breakfast carts in five school districts. The pilot program is intended to reduce barriers to free breakfast programs in the schools by having carts with healthy breakfast items in convenient places around the schools. Eating breakfast has been tied to better academic performance and improved health in children. To read more about the pilot program, please visit: www.kidsburgh.org.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the Highmark Foundation are hosting a free health forum about health disparities on December 12^th at 6 p.m. Learn about the inequities in health and access to health resources in our country from a panel of experts. The event is being held at the Heinz Field Champions Club. To register, please call 412-263-1541 or visit: http://promo.post-gazette.com/healthforum.

Interested in learning how e-cigarettes and vaping affect youth? Join Tobacco Free Allegheny for their quarterly meeting, Not Water, Not Safe: How E-Cigarettes Impact Youth, on December 13^th. The meeting will cover information about the impact of vaping on the adolescent brain and ways to change the narrative about e-cigarettes.

Are you interested in addressing the inequities affecting black girls in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County? Join the Black Girls Equity Alliance (BGEA) for an all workgroup convening on December 13^th. The BGEA currently consists of four workgroups, which focus on improving outcomes for black girls in child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and health and wellness. The all workgroup convening will provide attendees with workgroup updates and a presentation on juvenile justice data dashboard. For more information and to register, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-girls-equity-alliance-all-workgroup-convening-tickets-52405777090?aff=eac2.

Did you know opioid overdose related deaths are reduced by half in communities that have access to naloxone? On December 13th, naloxone (also known by the brand name, Narcan) will be available for FREE at locations across Pennsylvania. The free distribution day is part of statewide efforts to reduce the number of opioid overdoses and get residents treatment for substance use and abuse.

Naloxone is a medication that can reverse an overdose caused by an opioid by blocking the effects of opioids on the brain. Naloxone will be available for free at seven sites in Allegheny County. Residents can walk into any location and pick up one naloxone kit per person. People are not required to provide names or identifying information at the sites.

Free naloxone distribution is on December 13th from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. (unless otherwise noted) at the following locations in Allegheny County:

• Allegheny County Health Department Immunization Clinic, Hartley Rose Building – 425 First Ave., 4th Floor, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 from 11 am to 4 pm
• Duquesne University Pharmacy – 1860 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15219
• Millvale Community Center – 501 Lincoln Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15209
• Turtle Creek Fire Department – 125 Monroeville Ave., Turtle Creek, PA 15145
• St. Peter’s Episcopal Church – 4048 Brownsville Rd., Pittsburgh, PA 15227
• St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church – 220 8th St., McKeesport, PA 15132
• Focus On Renewal Community Resource Center – 420 Chartiers Ave., McKees Rocks, PA 15136

For more information, please visit: www.facebook.com/events.

Did you know December 1^st is World AIDS Day? World AIDS Day is a global initiative to raise awareness, fight prejudice and stigma, and improve education about HIV and AIDS. This year, we encourage everyone to get tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. About 1 in 7 Americans who have HIV don’t know they have it. The only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested. Everyone ages 15 to 65 should get tested at least once.

Looking for an HIV testing location? ACHD provides free and confidential HIV/STD testing at our walk-in clinic located at 1908 Wylie Avenue in the Hill District. Find more information about ACHD’s STD/HIV-AIDS Clinic, including hours of operation, at www.alleghenycounty.us/Health-Department.

The US Department of Health and Human Services released the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2^nd edition on November 12^th. The guidelines outline the amounts and types of physical activity needed to maintain or improve overall health and reduce the risk of chronic disease. The document highlights new benefits of physical activity and tested strategies that can be used to get all Americans more active. The new guidelines also include new information about sedentary behavior, guidance for preschool-aged children, strategies for physical activity promotion, and more!

Looking for ways to promote the new guidelines in your organization? Check out the Move Your Way Campaign for resources to help explain the guidelines to your consumers.

This is the latest Live Well Allegheny e-update. Please find a variety of information that will be helpful to you in your efforts, and can also be shared within your own networks. As always, you can find a great deal of information on our website at: www.livewellallegheny.com including partner resources which are available here: https://livewellallegheny.com/about-us/live-well-allegheny-participants/partner-materials/.

We now have 61 communities, 15 school districts, 167 community partners, 47 restaurants, and 27 workplaces united in our efforts!