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Sweet Grass Healthy Communities Group |
The
Sweet Grass Healthy Communities group members and any interested community
members will meet this Thursday, July 6th at the old hospital building
conference room (off of 5th street). The purpose of the meeting is to gain
training on ways that Sweet Grass Healthy Communities and area residents can be
proactive in shaping a positive future for our area residents. More
precisely, the vision of Sweet Grass Healthy communities is "Family,
school, and community working together to promote healthy behaviors through
communication, respect, and recognition to maximize the potential of Sweet Grass
County residents." The discussion of this meeting will be factors
that contribute to addictions like alcohol and tobacco, as well as factors that
protect our youth from participating in destructive behaviors. 
The Sweet Grass Healthy Communities group was started by several community members in applying for grant money and to build a Community Coalition with representation throughout. Representative from community organizations, businesses, and government groups, individuals, and other leaders were contacted and invited to participate. The Coalition was to gather the resources of the community and to establish connections within the groups so that they could work together for common goals.
Sweet Grass Healthy Communities, led by Gracee Sivney and Tracey Stephens, submitted a grant proposal this spring. The proposal was among several applicants was turned down, and afterwards the group found out that the grant would no longer be offered. This left the group wondering what they could do with all of their hard work.
The group decided to go through training provided free by the
state even thought they knew that there would be no grant money. The
training would be good for the group to learn ways to help the community and
also might be good for several other grants that might come up in the
future. 
The training consists of learning about the risk factors and protective factors that influence behaviors in a community. Then, after learning about these factors, the group will collect data which will accurately give them a picture of our community. From this data, Sweet Grass Healthy Communities can then determine the needs of this community and target their efforts more effectively.
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