The Second Annual Healthy Communities Conference was held at the Hoagland Pincus Conference Center in Shrewsbury, MA, on June 18, 2008. The conference was also the final session for participants in the Massachusetts Forum for Healthy Communities attended by graduates from Fall River. Fall River has had over twenty graduates from the annual program over the past five years. The conference featured presentations by Department of Public Health Medical Director Lauren Smith, M.D. and Healthy City Fall River Coordinator David Weed. Click here to see pictures of the 2007 graduation class. For further information about the Massachusetts Partnership and registration for the upcoming Forum series, contact Massachusetts Partnership for Healthy Communities Director Peter Lee at the Medical Foundation in Dorchester at 617-698-8079.
 

(Top row, left) Massachusetts Partnership for Healthy Communities director Peter Lee welcomes participants to the day-long event. (Top row, center) Maureen Brisson and Karin Wood of the B.O.L.D. Coalition are joined by Peter prior to the graduation ceremony. (Top row, right) Karin accepts the graduation certificates on behalf of Fall River Forum participants Maureen Brisson and Kim Rodrigues as Cathy O'Connor, Director of the Office of Healthy Communities for the Department of Public Health (DPH). (Middle row, left) DPH Medical Director Lauren Smith, M.D., delivers the keynote on eliminating health disparities. (Middle row, right) Roxanne Reddington-Wilde provides an introduction to the Critical MASS Tool Kit for Ending Health Disparities in one of the workshops. (Bottom row, left) David Weed, coordinator of the Healthy City Fall River initiative, gives his reflections on lessons learned over the first five years of the project to Mass Forum participants. (Bottom row, center and right) After Eileen Sullivan and Gwen Stewart describe over ten years of their experiences in creating the  statewide Smoke-Free Workplace Law, Karin Wood, right, of Fall River poses a questions about the process.