September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 14
WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
Pursuing Health and Wellness
for All in Kerman, California
By Theresa Johnson, CPRP, and Shannon Barrett
C
ity of Kerman (California) Parks, Recreation and Community Services
Department staff asked: How can we improve our engagement
efforts with the community, particularly our Hispanic community
members who call Kerman home? This agriculture-based
community, located 15 miles west of Fresno in the heart of California's San
Joaquin Valley, is home to 16,955 community members, of which more than
75 percent are Hispanic. Collaborating with community-based organizations
that already provided services to this group was an important first step in the
establishment of the Kerman Wellness Hub (KWH).
Establishing Partnerships
In 2020, the City of Kerman received
the Parks as Community Nutrition
Hubs grant after successfully
establishing the Kerman Farmers
Market with funds received through
the Increasing Access to Healthy
Foods Through Innovation grant.
With the support of these grants,
Kerman has been able to provide
community members with access to
resources that strengthen healthy food
decisions to improve health outcomes.
To do this work, the city established
the KWH with representatives from
social services, the local Valley
Health Team - which is a Federally
Qualified Health Center - and
community organizations like Centro
La Familia Advocacy Services.
The KWH began
facilitating
monthly partner meetings where
local organizations could share
resources and opportunities that
benefited Kerman's community
members. During one of the earlier
meetings, Centro La Familia Advocacy
Services shared that it had an
overstock of diapers while Kerman
Care Center, a pregnancy care center,
had an overstock of formula. During
the meeting, these two organizations
agreed to share their overstocks with
each other to better serve their clients.
This was a perfect example of
what collaborating within our own
community would look like as we
continued to develop the KWH.
To facilitate and implement the
KWH, the City of Kerman hired a
community health worker (CHW)
The City of Kerman, California, partnered
with social services, the local
Valley Health Team and community
organizations to establish the Kerman
Wellness Hub.
14 Parks & Recreation | SEP T EMBER 2 0 2 3
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
to serve as the liaison between the
partner organizations and the community.
In addition to facilitating the
partner meeting, the CHW also was
responsible for developing a health
and wellness screening tool in the
three languages spoken in Kerman:
English, Spanish and Punjabi. With
the help of the KWH partners, the
CHW identified services for each
response on the screening tool.
Elevating Equity
As we continued to focus on equity
and serving the unrepresented members
of our community, staff and
partners worked together to complete
NRPA's Elevating Health Equity
Through Parks and Recreation: A Framework
for Action assessments to identify
areas for additional staff training, access
to programs offered and methods
of service delivery. Through this process,
we drafted the Kerman Farmers
Market Engagement Plan and Equity
Action Plan. During the completion
of the Agency Assessment, Part 2,
staff and partners identified the following
priorities:
* Additional staff training when
it comes to serving populations
with diverse backgrounds
* Assumption that all community
members have access to programs
and services
* Educating community members
on programs and services offered
through the park and recreation
department
* Educating the community on the
decision-making
processes
bringing about change
To increase vendor engagement,
staff and partners established the
goal of increasing the number of
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP) eligible food vendors
through the following objectives:
for
PHOTO COURTESY OF SHANNON BARRETT, CITY OF KERMAN PARKS
AND RECREATION
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2023 - Parks & Recreation
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - Intro
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - Cover1
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - Cover2
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 1
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 2
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 3
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 4
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 5
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 6
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 7
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 8
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 9
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 10
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 11
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 12
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 13
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 14
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 15
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 16
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 17
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 18
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 19
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 20
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 21
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 22
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 23
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 24
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 25
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 26
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 27
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 28
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 29
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 30
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 31
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 32
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 33
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 34
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 35
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 36
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 37
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 38
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 39
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 40
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 41
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 42
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 43
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 44
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 45
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 46
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 47
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 48
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 49
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 50
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 51
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 52
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 53
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 54
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 55
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 56
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - Cover3
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - Cover4
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2025
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2025
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2021
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