Service Line Program Manager
St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital
FOCUS
In Nampa, Idaho, social disparities have created significant areas of vulnerability in some of our neighborhoods. Addressing equity issues as the cause of these disparities will allow more residents to have an opportunity to live their healthiest life. Children in our community should be as safe and nurtured where they live as they are at school. When the school bell rings, an alternate reality shouldn’t exist. As part of a health care system, my focus is finding solutions that combine population and community health strategies that provide health equity to all residents of my community.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVE: Idaho Resilience Project ACEs Collaborative
The Idaho Resilience Project ACEs Collaborative will engage individuals, organizations, leaders, and communities to make Idaho a state where individual strength and community support help people build resiliency in the face of adversity. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are complex, deep-rooted, and arguably one of our generation’s most pervasive problems. Although ACEs impact children of all social and economic backgrounds, Idaho ranks fifth highest in the country for children experiencing three or more ACEs when poverty, homelessness and food insecurity are included as predictive factors. Our lower resourced communities, and those with a high percentage of minority children- specifically Hispanic and Latino children-undeniably face pervasive inequities that contribute to higher ACEs scores. Our collaborative will help challenge, and change, the attitudes, structures, and systems that enable inequities to prevent children from maximizing their promise and potential.
MORE ABOUT JEAN
I am a passionate champion of community engagement and organization, and I believe that cross-sector collaboration is imperative to building a Culture of Health in communities. When residents feel their voice is heard and they have the power to influence change, there is very little that can’t be accomplished. This program will help me build the will and skill necessary to help make Nampa a community that embodies the promise it holds for all residents.