NEWS

Friday, June 2, Louisiana Tech will host the Promising Practices Conference on Community Health – a free event open to anyone interested in improving health and wellness in their local communities.

The Conference will be held both onsite in University Hall on the Tech campus and online through Zoom from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

The event will also include two onsite preconference workshops on Thursday, June 1 from 1 – 5 p.m. The first workshop will focus on creating effective visuals for sharing health and medical information. The second workshop will be dedicated to using plain language to share health and medical information effectively. For more information on the preconference, see promisingpracticesconference.com/preconference-program.

Overall, the Conference will focus on sharing resources and strategies attendees can use to improve health and wellness in their neighborhoods, towns, cities, and parishes, and will include speakers from across the state.

Unlike more traditional conferences where speakers use formal presentations to share information with attendees, Promising Practices will focus on discussions and conversations with the audience. To do so, the Conference is organized into four Discussion Sessions where a panel of three or four individuals who work in community health and wellness will discuss their experiences with attendees and ask audience members to share their own experiences, ask questions, and offer suggestions for improving health and wellness in Louisiana communities.

Discussion panel topics include the following:

• Listening to Community to Develop Effective Approaches to Public Health and Community Wellness
• Focusing on Priority Populations – LSES and Rural Populations
• Focusing on Priority Populations – BIPOC and LGBT Populations
• Listening to Researchers – New Developments in Research and Technology

The goal is to create conversations that could lead to the information exchange and collaborations essential to addressing the health and wellness challenges faced by Louisiana communities today.

The Conference is part of a greater community outreach program coordinated by the Louisiana Cancer Research Center (LCRC)’s newly created Community Outreach and Engagement Office, and the event represents a collaboration between the LCRC and the Center for Health and Medical Communication at Louisiana Tech. The event is sponsored by the LCRC and AmeriHealth and involves the participation of the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI) and the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL). The Conference also represents a mix of continued (between CHMC and LPHI) and new (between the LCRC and the CHMC) collaborations that focus on improving the health of individuals across the state.

For more information on the Conference, go to promisingpracticesconference.com or email the event coordinators at promisingpracticesconf@gmail.com.