This was a smaller project, but the type we love to work on as it gets us on the ground floor of what’s happening in our communities. This project involved looking at how the Sisters of Charity Health Systems’ Building Healthy Communities program might be able to better organize and collect data to begin formal evaluations for their programs.  These wonderful Building Healthy Communities programs focus on increasing the health of Cleveland neighborhoods though participation in farmers markets, dance/exercise classes, and health education. It was a pleasure working with the staff at Building Healthy Communities, Sisters of Charity Health System, and St. Vincent Charity Medical Center.  Our final report included a comprehensive review of their program details and looked at how surveys, better attendance tracking, and using the hospital’s existing CRM could streamline what they needed for reporting, evaluation, and operations.

As David O’Neil pointed out in my interview with him a couple weeks ago, one of the great things about this international public markets conference is being able to talk to other people who are passionate about markets. I had a chance to sit in on a discussion surrounding farmers markets. It was a great setting where people who run farmers markets or who organize them got a chance to hear the issues that other markets were having and offer advice, and in many cases, commiserate and encourage.

This discussion group was a true example of the international nature of the conference. There were at least four individuals from Canada and one from Poland. The rest of the discussion participants were from all over the United States with nine states represented altogether. That’s pretty good for a total of about 20 … Read More »

Session one of the 8th International Public Markets Conference, “Connecting a market to it’s community.” Tools and techniques from the Rust Belt to the Pacific Rim. An Illustration by Julia Kuo.

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