A New Way to Stay Connected

If you’ve worked with the Health Council for any length of time, you know how information usually gets around. A flyer lands in my inbox with a note asking if I can share it. An email gets forwarded three times before it reaches the person who needed it. A great event happens, and half the people who would have come never heard about it. We have so much going on in this county, and it was getting lost in the shuffle.

So we set out to fix that.

Over the past few months, we’ve rebuilt www.chavescountyhc.org to be the one place you can go to find what’s happening and share what you’re doing. The new community calendar lets partners and community members submit their own events at www.chavescountyhc.org/events. Once they’re approved, they go up on the site and get linked right here in The Pulse.

We also made it easier to keep your Council membership current. If you’ve been a member before, just log in with your email address and update your information. New job? New email? You can take care of it yourself in a couple of minutes.

While you’re on the site, take a look at the programs we’re involved in and our Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). And if your organization has news to share, there’s now a place to submit program updates for this newsletter at www.chavescountyhc.org/member-program-update. I think this may end up being the most useful thing we’ve added, because it gives every partner a voice in these pages.

You’ll also see a section for grants and funding. We’re searching for opportunities and posting what we find. Some months will have more than others, and not everything will fit every organization, but at least you’ll have one place to look.

This is just the beginning. I’ll keep adding to the site, including volunteer opportunities, and we’ll continue to grow our 2-1-1 resources.

For this to work, I need your help with a few things. The Pulse will only be emailed to people who sign up for it, so please sign up at www.chavescountyhc.org/events if you want to keep getting it. Instead of sending me events and asking me to share them, submit them through the website so everything stays in one place. And keep an eye on the calendar: submissions are due by the 20th of each month. The Pulse goes out on the 1st, and I need those ten days to put it together and make sure everything works the way it should.

I truly believe this will change how we share information across Chaves County. Thank you for everything you do, and I can’t wait to see what you send in.