Welcome to the newest member of Live Well Allegheny, the Borough of Bradford Woods. Congratulations to the borough on taking steps towards improving the health of its residents.

Happy October! Autumn offers a ton of fun activities. From hiking to apple picking, the family-fun opportunities are endless. With all the fun of fall comes the not-so-fun flu season. A yearly flu vaccine is the most important step to protecting yourself, your family, and your co-workers. Now through the end of October is the opportune time to get yours. ACHD offers flu shots at our walk-in clinic located at 425 First Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. The clinic is open weekdays from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. except Wednesdays when the clinic is open 1-8 p.m. No appointment is necessary. For more information about the flu and for clinic information, please visit our website.

Did you know that October is International Walk to School Month? Throughout the month, thousands of students around the world celebrate walking to school and the journey that comes with it. Walking to and from school is a perfect opportunity for physical activity, and it limits the number of vehicles on the road within school zones making communities safer for our youngest pedestrians. We urge everyone to participate by walking to school this month! As just one example, our Traffic Safety Education Project (TSEP) celebrated Walk to School Day on October 10^th with a Walk to School Event at Carnegie Elementary School.

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

Want to learn more about the impact of Live Well Allegheny? Check out our 2018 Community Impact Report: Creating Health in Every Space! The report highlights how Live Well Allegheny works with our partners to create opportunities for health in every space—where Allegheny County residents live, learn, work, and eat.

Congratulations to Pittsburgh Public Schools on three elementary schools being recognized as “America’s Healthiest Schools” by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation! Pittsburgh Brookline Elementary, Pittsburgh Langley K-8, and Pittsburgh Manchester Elementary received bronze awards as part of the Healthy Schools Program. The schools earned the distinction by successfully meeting rigorous criteria for serving healthier meals, getting kids moving, offering high quality health and physical education, and empowering school leaders to be healthy role models.

Learn more about America’s Healthiest Schools here!

Congratulations to the City of Pittsburgh, a Live Well Allegheny Community, on being accepted into the Safe Streets, Smart Cities Academy with the National Complete Streets Coalition! The Coalition will work with the city to strategize ways to improve safety for all people who use the street. One of three cities to be accepted into the academy, the City of Pittsburgh created a new Department of Mobility and Infrastructure to utilize new mobility technologies to create safer streets. By working with the Coalition and the two other cities, the city will work to establish new processes and best practices to create safer streets.

The Youth Working Group of the Mon Valley Providers Council is looking to help organize a Poverty Simulation for any interested audiences. The poverty simulation experience is designed to help participants begin to understand what it might be like to live in a typical low-income family trying to survive from month to month. It is a simulation, not a game. The object is to sensitize participants to the realities faced by low-income people.

If your organization is interested in hosting a simulation, please contact Elizabeth Fries at efries@hscc-mvpc.org.

American Walks Community Change Grant Application Period is now open! America Walks, partners of the Every Body Walk! Collaborative (the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Juliet Ashby Hillman Foundation, Lyft, WalkBoston, and other generous sponsors), announced another round of funding from the Community Change Grant program. This program will award grantees $1,500 in community stipends for projects related to creating healthy, active, and engaged places to live, work, and play. Funded projects will increase walking and benefits of walkability in communities, work to grow the walking movement by engaging people and organizations new to the efforts and take steps towards creating a culture of inclusive health. Projects should be able to demonstrate how they will create healthy, active, and engaged communities that support walking as transportation, health, and recreation.

Applications are due November 2^nd by 5 p.m. For more information, please visit: http://americawalks.org/applications-open-for-2018-community-change-grants/.

Adagio Health, in collaboration with the office of State Representative Dan Frankel and the JFCS Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, is hosting a Screening Mammography event on October 18^th. Adagio Health Medical Providers will be at the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry (828 Hazelwood Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15217) to provide same-day breast exam services and mammograms. Screenings are open to all: uninsured, under-insured, and insured are welcome!

To make an appointment, please call 724-375-8147.

Rail~Volution is coming to Pittsburgh October 21-24! Rail~Volution is a national conference and network of leaders at the forefront of building vibrant, connected cities and regions through transit and related investments. Interweaving national and local content, the Rail~Volution conference showcases real-world examples and innovative solutions to the challenges cities and regions face around mobility, affordable housing, and economic development. It brings together practitioners from diverse sectors, including government, transportation, real estate, business, finance, environment, health, activism and advocacy, and equips them with the tools necessary to create more livable communities anchored by transportation choices. Find more information about Rail~Volution in the conference program!

Are you worried about air quality, mold, lead, radon, pesticides or cleaning products used in your school? Wondering how to ensure healthy, green, and sustainable learning environments?

Join Women for a Healthy Environment for the 3^rd annual Healthy Schools Summit on October 26^th. The summit, open to the public, is a learning opportunity that includes hearing from experts, sharing knowledge, collaborating, and taking an active role in promoting green and healthy learning environments. Act 48 credit and Nursing CEUs available.

Join the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative and Philadelphia Playful Learning Landscapes for the Play for Change conference on October 30^th! The day-long event will inspire attendees to think critically about play. There will be keynote speakers, lightning talks, hands-on activities, and action planning. Registration is available for individuals and teams of 5-7 members. The event is being held at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland.

For more information, and to register, please visit: www.playfulpittsburgh.org/new-events/playforchange.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is the second-most common kind of cancer in women. Approximately 1-in-8 women born in the United States will get breast cancer at some point in her lifetime. The good news? Most women can survive breast cancer if it’s found and treated early. If you are a woman age 40 to 49, talk with your doctor about when to start getting mammograms and how often to get them. If you are a woman age 50 to 74, be sure to get mammograms every 2 years. Talk to a doctor about your risk for breast cancer, especially if a close family member of yours had breast or ovarian cancer.

Want to take action this month? Use the toolkit below for ideas!

ACHD’s Underinsured/Uninsured Health Resources Guide has been revised, updated, and expanded! The guide includes information about Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and other health clinics/providers who serve people with high health insurance deductibles, as well as those who are uninsured. The guide also provides an expanded section of resources for locating best prices for prescription drugs, and an expanded section on agencies and organizations who serve our growing immigrant communities.

Please pass this information on to partners, clients, and constituents as a health resource. We encourage you to download and print the guide, as well as linking to it on your website.

If there are changes, corrections, or additions to the guide, please contact Lorraine Starsky BSN, RN at 412-247-7816 or lorraine.starsky@alleghenycounty.us

The 2018 Pennsylvania LGBT Health Needs Assessment is now available! In 2015/2016 and again in 2018, The Pennsylvania Department of Health partnered with LGBT centers across the state to gather health and wellness information. The 2018 PA LGBT Health Needs Assessment collects data on LGBT health and supports identification of health disparities in tobacco use, cancer, HIV, obesity, mental health, access to care, and more. In 2018, Pennsylvania partnered with Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center to reach a statewide purposeful sample. The assessment was conducted in collaboration with LGBT HealthLink, a program of CenterLink.

Click here to view the Pennsylvania 2018 LGBT Health Needs Assessment Summary Report

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, 14 school districts, 167 community partners, 46 restaurants, and 24 workplaces united in our efforts!