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