Community / Project Resources

A Healthy Plaquemines Now: Using the Local Culture as the Cornerstone to Build a Community Coalition

Crescent City WIC created this poster to highlight their local work incorporating community culture into their coalition’s health messaging. This poster was created during the CPHMC project and was presented at NWA’s Annual Conference in May 2016.

Crescent City WIC Services INC. (CC WIC) acting as the backbone agency established the Healthy Plaquemines Now (HPN) coalition in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana as a path to overcoming the community’s challenges of having food deserts and lack of other options for healthy living. The project’s primary purpose was to use the local culture to build a coalition that would be sustainable beyond the grant-funding period. The central goals consisted of addressing the local need, using parish resources with the epic center being strategically placed at the community’s newly built medical center. Most of the objectives of this project included using the area’s resources while honoring the residents’ way of living and other traditions. Using the community’s culture and propensity for resiliency, this project started building a coalition that was equipped, and most of all committed, to continuing progress beyond the funding period. This group served three connected parishes. This tri–parish alliance worked to assimilate the traditions and norms of the residents living in Plaquemines Parish into choosing healthy food options, maintaining optimal weight and managing chronic illnesses.

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Date Added
October 17, 2017