Hearts Beat Back: The Heart of New Ulm Project
Cindy Winters, Manager October 2, 2014
• Agricultural area of south-central Minnesota
• “The (statistically) most German town in America”
• 17,199 residents (13,594 within New Ulm city limits)
• Near perfect gender split• Average age is 40 and adults
account for 75% of the population
• 97% identify as White• 20% Bachelors degree or
higher education• 60% of adults are married• stable year-over-year
population• 90% of residents are on the
same EHR
Fun facts about the 56073
Program Components
The Project is primarily funded by a large health system and focuses on individual behavior change, coupled with community education, medical interventions, environmental and policy changes, concurrent in the following major spheres of influence:
Healthcare Community Worksite
Existing condition: Oct. 2013
Existing condition: August 2014
Existing condition: Oct. 2013
Existing condition: August 2014
Change is hard
• Know your audience - learn to speak their language
• Find a respected spokesperson or spokes people
• Use your resources – don’t accept the technical brush off
• Find the common ground and be willing to compromise
• Programming - Policy
• Celebrate successes -it’s a marathon
• Money can get in the wayPatient
• Complete Streets Policyo Implementation of WALC recommendationso Safety education for all userso Encouragement programmingo Downtown revitalizationo On going evaluation
• Sustain HONU Project
• Community Health Assessment
• Restaurant recognition program systems change
Next Steps
Thank you!
Cindy Winters, Manager October 2, 2014