What is the Healthy Parkinson’s Communities™ initiative?

Healthy Parkinson's Communities

For the past 16 years, local organizations and leaders throughout the US, Canada, and beyond have collaborated with us to host The Victory Summit event for their Parkinson’s communities. Everywhere we went, we asked ourselves the same questions:  

  • What is our role here?  
  • How can we support these local efforts?  
  • What barriers exist here to reach more people with the tools, information, and resources needed to live well with Parkinson’s?  

We know now that the needs of those affected by Parkinson’s far exceed the resources available to help them. Most organizations and community leaders we hear from wish they had more hands on deck, more access to financial resources to support initiatives, and more awareness about Parkinson’s in their area. Therefore, we designed our Healthy Parkinson’s Communities initiative to address these needs together  and help communities go farther than they could alone.  

In this conversation, Jenna Deidel, Director of Programs & Outreach at the Davis Phinney Foundation, talks about the development of the initiative, its aim, Community Action Committees, how to get more information and get involved, and more.

You can watch the video below.

Resources and Topics Discussed

  • Through this initiative, we hope to support the community leaders around the country who are already doing the important work of helping people live well with Parkinson's
  • Our role in Healthy Parkinson's Communities is to be a hub, helping connect community leaders with one another, and to create and distribute resources and tools that can be beneficial to any Parkinson's community
  • Community Action Committees (CACs) are diverse coalitions of community leaders from local organizations, hospitals, universities, and more who are making a difference in their communities  
  • CACs come in all different forms, with some serving an entire state and some serving a single neighborhood. Through a network of collaboration, CACs can work with one another to share best practices, resources, lessons learned, advice, tools, and more
  • If you would like to learn more about the Healthy Parkinson's Communities initiative, the closest CAC to you, or to get involved, please reach out to our Community Engagement Manager, at communities@dpf.org
  • You can sign up for the monthly Healthy Parkinson's Communities newsletter here

Learn More about the Healthy Parkinson's Communities initiative

Using what we’ve learned from 16 years of creating educational tools and resources and building grassroots initiatives and events, we are excited to invite local leaders to join to make the places we live, work, and play more inclusive and supportive for those living with Parkinson’s.  Learn more about Healthy Parkinson's Communities here

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