Our Impact

2021 IMPACT

DECEMBER 2021 – As Olympic Peninsula Healthy Community Coalition (OPHCC) entered our seventh year in existence, “change” was again the theme for 2021 as we developed creative solutions to the barriers brought on by COVID. In addition to a second year of COVID continuing to ravage our county, we lost both our Executive Director (ED) of four years and our contracted public health expert who carried forward the Olympic Community of Health (OCH) deliverables.

Precluded from doing the public events and physical in-person activities we’d so anticipated, we opted to use this time to creatively pivot our emphasis, respond to our community’s critical needs and build important infrastructure and strengthen our framework for the future when we can return to in-person events.

While a bulk of our work focuses on connecting partners and resources, our primary goal is to encourage
Policy, Systems and Environmental changes (PSE).

Expanding Our Focus

With the advent of COVID-19, it quickly became apparent that continuing with our messaging of the 5-2-1-0 campaign (Eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day, limit screen time to 2 hours or less per day, get 1 hour of physical activity and drink 0 sugar-sweetened beverages) was obsolete as children tapped into their classes remotely on laptops and parents across the spectrum worked remotely. 

Simultaneously, local and national health data were indicating a burgeoning number of behavioral and mental health issues related to the pandemic and lock down; caregiving burdens, job and income losses, food insecurity, increased anxiety, depression and social isolation, and higher rates of alcohol and substance abuse.  

(POLICY) Early in 2021, our Board of Directors (BOD) voted to adopt and implement a whole health literacy campaign, a comprehensive model addressing body, mind, spirit and community components of health.

Our goal is to provide leadership on this county-wide health literacy campaign to engage a wide swath of medical, non-profit and educational partners to promote, educate and facilitate opportunities to practice techniques and habits that support whole health. This project seeks to address several of the determinants of health, including: stress management and reduction, early childhood education, social and community support systems, health literacy and resources for food security. Our particular emphasis has been/will be those populations at highest risk for chronic disease and behavioral health problems – particularly the Medicaid population.

Whole Health Campaign Accomplishments

• OPHCC completed a survey to all partners requesting input on how we could frame this to best meet their needs. Received a 40% return rate on survey questions. 
• Completed two longer Zoom focus groups with partners to hammer out details of how to maximize our impact with minimal budget. 
• Developed a draft action plan based on partner input
  • (ENVIRONMENTAL) Completely revamped OPHCC’s website to include much more information immediately available to partners with special emphasis on the Whole Health component (See: healthyOP.org)
  • (SYSTEMS) Dr. Jonathan Freezer at Peninsula Children’s Clinic requested a comprehensive list of low or no cost physical activity options available on the Peninsula for children to include in after-visit summaries to support reduced anxiety and depression; OPHCC completed the project for the clinic and it is now being used in pediatric visits and we hope to implement this resource in other clinics across the county. 

A Note from Dr. Freezer:  From all of us at Peninsula Children’s, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!  The list of healthy activities on the Olympic Peninsula is an invaluable resource that hopefully will go on to inspire many of our patient families to take the first steps, or subsequent steps, towards a healthy active lifestyle!  I have gone ahead and distributed copies to all of the providers at Peninsula Children’s Clinic and have also transposed this document into our health record for easier distribution to our patients. All in all, everyone that has seen this so far has been very impressed and we are all excited to watch this document evolve over time!

• (SYSTEMS) Sequim Free Clinic requested Whole Health prescription pads to “prescribe” time in nature and physical activity to their patients; resource developed and being used, goal is to expand this resource to other clinics as well. 

Other Significant 2021 Accomplishments

Community Health and Food Access Connections

• (SYSTEMS) OPHCC played a significant role in the development of the Sequim Health and Housing Collaborative, a cooperative venture between the City of Sequim and six of our principle partners to promote health and pathways to housing in a synergistic and unified approach.  (ENVIRONMENTAL) Due to the relationships already established through our coalition, this team was able to hit the ground running and have already had a powerful impact on the area, particularly with their use of “Hope Navigators” to provide assistance to the underserved population. In 2021, Brown Bag Lunches were provided (three times per week) to area residents by partnering resources. Through an enormous team of partners and volunteers, we successfully provided the equivalent of 600,000 meals via a drive-thru, COVID-safe distribution system. 
• (ENVIRONMENTAL & POLICY) Through our contracted work with WSU Extension, our partners, and the Sequim Food Bank, an additional six (18 total) new Little Free Pantry (LFP) sites were established, and a new policy developed to include LFP shopping bags at each pantry site, encouraging users to come to the local food banks for additional foods they might need. Additionally, we sponsored a town hall community meeting discussing the history of LFP’s and information on our county network. 
• (ENVIRONMENTAL) We supported the Port Angeles School District school gardens program to expand their network, helped teachers create curricula and adapt to COVID protocols and helped them target the community for garden material donations. 
• (ENVIRONMENTAL) We supported both the Sequim and Port Angeles Farmers Markets to promote, educate and do outreach for the Market Match program to the community and EBT users to encourage local purchases and healthy foods. 
• (ENVIRONMENTAL) We provided giant fruit baskets of local produce for OMC’s staff break rooms during the apex of the pandemic, thanking our critical health care providers for the work they do. 
• (SYSTEMS) Through collaboration with United Way and Clallam Resilience Project, we provided 168 teachers in schools from Quilcene to Clallam Bay with an in-service focused on childhood health and nutrition. The event was so successful participants lobbied for an encore presentation with even more information, to be provided this spring. 
• (SYSTEMS) Met with second year resident physicians at North Olympic Healthcare Network to share community-based resources for food insecure clients. Trained on options for referrals to CBO’s, food insecurity screening (follow up on last year’s project to include food security questions during patient visits) and the potential for a Little Food Pantry at the clinic in the future. 
• OPHCC continued our collaboration with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department, Clallam County Commissioners and Security Northwest to provide the 833 Clallam County COVID Phone Line. 

Community & Partner Engagement

• Our monthly Coalition meetings continued throughout the year via Zoom, featuring partners sharing information and resources, speakers and our “Partner Spotlights” – an opportunity each month for a partner organization to provide a deeper dive into how their organization functions within our community. 
• OPHCC attended numerous local and regional partner meetings, including the Washington Communities for Children Conference, Clallam Resilience Project, Clallam Health Network Leadership Team and many school board meetings. 

Staffing/Personnel 

• Early in 2021 our Executive Director Leslee Francis requested to work remotely from Montana due to family issues and our BOD obliged her. By fall, it became apparent we needed a locally based ED as more in-person meetings began happening and Leslee was unable to relocate to Sequim, thus requiring us to complete a recruitment process for a new ED. A significant portion of fall 2021 was spent revamping the job description, advertising, interviewing and the hiring of our new ED, Nicolina Miller. 
• We were thrilled to add Diana Reaume to our BOD last year, the Quillayute Valley School District Superintendent. In addition to the HR and personnel expertise Diana brings to our BOD, she is also a commercial organic farmer and brings her extensive network of contacts on the west end of the county, an area into which we’ve anxiously wanted to expand. 

Olympic Community of Health (OCH) and Medicaid Transformation Project (MTP) 

• OPHCC participated in all 2021 OCH meetings; 
• Completed mandatory Enhanced Transformation Activities report;
• Submitted OCH 2021 Community-Clinical Linkages Proposal, accepted by OCH staff;
• Received final payment for completion of MTP contract, and received maximum payment in 2021 for meeting change plan objectives. 

2021 Funding Sources

• Community organizations and donations: $3,316
• OCH Partnership: $49,647
• Healthcare Partnership: $57,500

Community Recognition

• Executive Director Leslee Francis was nominated for the Port Angeles Chamber’s “Young Leader” Award.
• OPHCC presented Dr. Allison Berry, Clallam’s Public Health Officer, with our “Community Champion” award and flowers for her strength and leadership during this difficult pandemic. 
• OPHCC provided the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe with our “Community Champion” award for their generosity of spirit in offering Clallam County vaccinations at their earliest opportunity. 

Summary

Despite a second year of working remotely due to COVID, we made significant impacts in 2021 pushing us in new directions and finding creative solutions to barriers. Once again, the strong relationships OPHCC has established across Clallam County benefited our community’s health and welfare while networking to share limited resources and maximizing all of our partners’ impact. Having done so much foundational work in 2021, we wholeheartedly look forward to a very successful 2022. With the introduction of the Whole Health campaign and all of its components and resources, a totally revamped website, an ever-expanding roster of partners, a highly skilled new Executive Director and our newest BOD member helping us grow our impacts to the west end, we anticipate a busy and impactful year ahead. 

The support of this MOU continues to help us fill critical community needs during a very difficult time in all of our lives and to coordinate efforts far beyond what one organization alone would be able to do.