Hand shoveling potting soil into a small pot

Happy Spring from the Anoka County SHIP Team!

We hope you all have had a chance to start enjoying the beautiful weather, whether it’s been getting outside for some movement, planning your garden, or simply spending time in the sunshine. Our team has been looking forward to getting out and meeting with all our partners and supporting their work to help everyone in Anoka County have opportunities for physical activity, access to healthy food, mental well-being, and reduced commercial tobacco use.

We appreciate all the work you do and are excited to continue to Make the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice for all who live, work, learn, and play in Anoka County. If you’d like to say hello or connect, please feel free to reach out to us at SHIP@co.anoka.mn.us. Happy Spring!

Anoka County SHIP Success Story: Walker Methodist River

Walker Methodist River (WMR) is an affordable senior living community located in downtown Anoka that is home to 45 residents. They received a SHIP Neighborhood Mini-Grant in 2021 to support healthy eating, physical activity, and social connectedness during a time of isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Read their success story here.

Wooden garden box with vegetable plants growing in it.

83.3% of participants feel that they are consuming more fruits and vegetables due to participating in the community garden.

Evaluation Highlight: We All Need Food and Water Community Garden

We All Need Food and Water and Peace Lutheran Church created a community garden with the help of Anoka County SHIP in 2021. Community gardens are a great way to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables, support community vitality and well-being, improve mental health, and provide environmental benefits. SHIP helped support evaluation of the community garden to understand the impact it had on fruit and vegetable consumption as well as inform plans in future years. Read the evaluation fact sheet here.

Sign up for the Workplace Wellness Newsletter

If you are a new or previous worksite wellness partner, be sure to sign up for our SHIP Worksite Wellness Newsletter to stay up to date on information, resources, and events. You can register here by clicking the letter icon next to “SHIP Worksite Wellness” in the “Notify Me” section.

Meet our new Healthy Eating Educator, Amanuel!

Amanuel Jilo is the newest addition to Anoka County SHIP for Community Healthy Eating. He is also a doctoral student at the University of the Philippines, Manila. He has a range of professional experiences from teaching to wellness assistant and from case investigator to lead contact tracer. In addition to his experience in Ethiopia, he has worked with various organizations in Minnesota such as Ramsey County, Minnesota Department of Health, and Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He has promoted and practiced a healthy lifestyle for more than two decades, long before joining the field of public health as a professional. He is blessed with one baby child.

Please welcome Amanuel to our team! You can reach him via email at amanuel.jilo@co.anoka.mn.us

Photo of our new Healthy Eating Educator, Amanuel Jilo. Amanuel is wearing a blue shirt against a blue background and is looking into the camera.

Upcoming Events

Flyer for the presentation by Corey Martin

Click to enlarge

How to Get Your Mojo Back After COVID-19 hosted by the Mental Wellness Campaign for Anoka County

Join the Mental Wellness Campaign for Anoka County for the second presentation of this free education series on Tuesday, April 19^th. Dr. Corey Martin will lead a powerful, experiential session that will explore reconnecting in a world of disconnection and social isolation. This talk will help you understand how much power and control you have to make a meaningful difference in creating the connected life we all long for. Register for this free education series at www.mwcac.org/RSVP

Additional talks will be presented as part of the series. Visit the Mental Wellness Campaign for Anoka County website for details.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month

Join the Anoka County Child Abuse Prevention Council for two free virtual events in April to support families during Child Abuse Prevention Month.

Hope is a Verb: Creating Change for our Children will be the first event held on Monday, April 11th from 6:30-7:30pm. This event with the Zero Abuse Project will include a discussion of current trends in crimes against children, both in person and online, with an emphasis on what we can do to make things better and brighter for all youth.

The second event, Setting Limits & Positive Discipline, will be held on Thursday, April 28th from 6:30-8:00pm. This event will help participants learn positive discipline strategies that can reduce parenting stress while supporting children’s development.

Register for both events here.

Flyer for presentations for Child Abuse Prevention Month

Click to enlarge

Anoka County COVID-19 Resources

Anoka County SHIP has compiled a variety of resources to support the community during this time. We have created a web page with links to resources for various topics including food access, physical activity, tobacco cessation, mental well-being, and violence prevention. There are also resources specific to youth/families, seniors, food shelves, schools, and workplaces.

Visit https://www.anokacounty.us/3876/COVID-19-Resources to view and share resources with your guests, clients, patients, and students.

Do you have a program, project, or event related to healthy eating, active living, commercial tobacco-use, or mental well-being that you’d like us to support or share?

If you need support getting the word out about a program, project, or event, we’d love to help! Send your information to SHIP@co.anoka.mn.us and we can include it in our next quarterly newsletter.

If you’re in need of grant funding or technical assistance, please reach out to the same email address and we’d be happy to explore partnership further.