Northeast Texas Public Health District (NET Health) serves 21 counties in Northeast Texas. Located in Tyler, TX, NET Health provides many services to Smith County and the greater Northeast Texas region, including a Regional Laboratory, Milk and Water Testing, Restaurant and Food Inspections, Public Health Emergency Preparedness & Disease Surveillance, Immunizations & Tuberculosis Elimination, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program, Environmental Health, Vital Statistics, Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Services, Texas Healthy Communities, Fit City and the Center for Healthy Living.The Vision of the Northeast Texas Public Health District (NET Health) is through our collaborative efforts, Northeast Texas communities will be the healthiest in the State. Our Mission is to prevent illness, promote health, and protect our community. The Northeast Texas Public Health District exists to make Tyler a healthier community. Every resident is affected by our services DAILY.Smith County has a population of 209,714 residents, however the reach of NET Health' services extend to many other cities and 21 counties in the Northeast Texas region, with an estimated reach of 500,000 individuals. Community needs assessments revealed that low-income populations throughout Smith County, specifically African American populations, are at a higher risk for high cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels. In addition, low-income African American populations did not have the access to medical services and low-income programs necessary to overcome health disparities and disproportionalities. Tyler, located in Smith County, is a medical hub for East Texas. Many citizens from outlying counties travel to Tyler for medical treatment and based on previous program experience, if a Center for Healthy Living was established in a Tyler neighborhood, clients would travel from all over to gain access to health screenings and services. The overall project goal is to implement innovative, evidence-based health strategies such as use of community health workers, innovations in chronic disease self-management for targeted populations. In addition, the following goals are specifically addressed through the creation of this center: · Identify Community Health Disparities · Identify and address preventable health needs of the target population · Implement chronic disease self-management programs · Provide access to screenings for individuals to manage chronic diseases · Increase health literacy and knowledge regarding health issues A brief description of the project implementation plan is outlined below and further detailed under "LHD and Community Collaboration and Implementation Strategy". · A needs assessment was conducted to collect baseline data and generate ideas for strategy and priority planning. · Stakeholders were engaged and the site of the Center was secured and renovated. · Based on the findings of the needs assessment, evidence-based projects for the targeted population were identified and tailored to suit the needs of the community. · Evidence-based projects for the targeted population were implemented, documented, tested and evaluated on an ongoing basis to determine efficacy and impact. Our primary objective was to establish self-management and wellness programs through the Center for Healthy Living using evidence-based designs with the following milestones: Milestone: Develop evidence-based projects for targeted population based on distilling the needs assessment and determining priority of interventions for the community. Outcome: Collection of baseline data through community health needs assessment. Milestone: Implement, document and test an evidence-based innovative project for targeted population. Currently, there have been 78 participants in the diabetes self-management program and 21 participants in Cooking Matters. Outcome: Have 250 individuals with documented screenings, etc... In our first year of being opened 610 unduplicated individuals have received screening services, with 407 having an individual health assessment. Milestone: Execution of evaluation process for project innovation. Outcome: Begin the evaluation process to determine increases over baseline data collected. The Problem Area in Diabetes (PAID) survey was selected as an evaluation technique as well as assessing individual health outcomes. All of our milestones and goals have either been met or are on target to be met. We attribute much of the success to the collaboration and partnership of the City of Tyler at large, local and municipal elected officials, the St. Louis community, other stakeholders and partner health and social service organizations. The Center has been successful in assisting many clients who have been able to reduce their cholesterol, blood pressure, and/or blood glucose numbers. In addition, many of the clients have lost weight, and have begun to eat healthy. The Chronic Disease Self-Management classes continue to experience increased community participation. In addition, the staff is constantly receiving requests for additional types of classes. Customer satisfaction surveys and evaluation surveys reveal clients reporting improvement in the quality of life. Clients are also reporting that they are able to walk further without losing their breath and are able to "enjoy life again." www.healthyeasttx.org