ARHF currently has three Working Committees:

(1) Community Health Committee: Seeking to eliminate barriers to healthcare access and equity in healthcare outcomes and promoting community participation in improving neighborhood health.

• CHAIR: Lawrence L. Sanders, Jr., MD, MBA
  
  Current Community Health activities include:
  
• Fighting breast cancer through promoting use of the special State of Georgia license tag (Click here to learn more)
• Representing ARHF on the Atlanta Community Access Coalition (http://www.acac.us/)
• Conducting neighborhood forums to listen to residents and discuss their health concerns, documented in a regularly updated report:
  
  CLICK HERE
  to see our
  "CREATING HEALTHY NEIGHBORHOODS" REPORT
  (PDF format - click here to download the latest version of acrobat reader)   
  
• Endorsing and promulgating the principles of The Congressional Universal Health Care Task Force, which was created in 2000 to promote discussion and strategic planning in Congress and the nation on how to achieve affordable, high quality health care for all. On March 18, 2003, members of the Task Force reintroduced the Health Care Access Resolution (House Concurrent Resolution 99) directing Congress to enact legislation by October 2005 that provides access to comprehensive health care for all Americans. The resolution lists 14 key attributes of a just and efficient health care system. It does not specifically endorse any one model of reform:

Whereas, the United States has the most expensive health care system in the world in terms of absolute costs, per capita costs, and percentage of gross domestic product (GDP);
Whereas, despite being first in spending, the World Health Organization has ranked the United States 37th among all nations in terms of meeting the needs of its people;
Whereas, 43 million Americans, including 10 million children, are uninsured;
Whereas, tens of millions more Americans are inadequately insured, including medicare beneficiaries who lack access to prescription drug coverage and long term care coverage;
Whereas, racial, income, and ethnic disparities in access to care threaten communities across the country, particularly communities of color;
Whereas, health care costs continue to increase, jeopardizing the health security of working families and small businesses;
Whereas, dollars that could be spent on health care are being used for administrative costs instead of patient needs;
Whereas, the current health care system too often puts the bottom line ahead of patient care and threatens safety net providers who treat the uninsured and poorly insured; and
Whereas, any health care reform must ensure that health care providers and practitioners are able to provide patients with the quality care they need;

Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that the Congress shall enact legislation by October 2005 to guarantee that every person in the United States, regardless of income, age, or employment or health status, has access to health care that:

1. is affordable to individuals and families, businesses and taxpayers and that removes financial barriers to needed care;
   
2. is as cost efficient as possible, spending the maximum amount of dollars on direct patient care;
   
3. provides comprehensive benefits, including benefits for mental health and long term care services;
   
4. promotes prevention and early intervention;
   
5. includes parity for mental health and other services;
   
6. eliminates disparities in access to quality health care;
   
7. addresses the needs of people with special health care needs and underserved populations in rural and urban areas;
   
8. promotes quality and better health outcomes;
   
9. addresses the need to have adequate numbers of qualified health care caregivers, practitioners, and providers to guarantee timely access to quality care;
   
10. provides adequate and timely payments in order to guarantee access to providers;
    
11. fosters a strong network of health care facilities, including safety net providers;
    
12. ensures continuity of coverage and continuity of care;
    
13. maximizes consumer choice of health care providers and practitioners; and
    
14. is easy for patients, providers and practitioners to use and reduces paperwork.


• Promoting the activities of a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: CoveringTheUninsured.org (Click on link for connection to web site)
• Seeking innovative solutions to address lack of health care access to persons because of language barriers
• Representing ARHF on the Core Leadership Group of the "Aging Atlanta" project, creating a model in South Fulton County of an age-friendly community with informed consumers that strives to keep older adults in their own homes and communities with maximum dignity and independence for as long as possible
• Received a grant from the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta , Inc. to:
  • Create a capacity inventory and asset map of the current grassroots/health education and disease prevention activities in the five core county region,
  • Define the most critical health issues in these counties by grassroots level dialogues in town hall forums to plan effective and efficient services, systems, and programs to fill identified gaps, and
  • Increase social capital in these counties by engaging volunteer participants in these activities 
• Assisting neighborhood redevelopment through volunteer opportunities in programs and services in Peoplestown
• Partnering with the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University in the $1.4 million three year grant, "Accountable Communities: Healthy Together", a long-range community-based participatory research initiative aimed at reducing the health disparities and the associated social, economic, and environmental determinants experienced by the residents of Neighborhood Planning Unit V (NPU-V).
• Partnering with the Atlanta Local Food Initiative to foster community gardens and local farmers' markets

• Creating a Status of Health report for the 10 county metropolitan region, including social health indicators, in collaboration with the State Division of Public Health, the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others

(3) Health & Planning Committee: Integrating health, broadly defined, into regional planning activities Integrating health, broadly defined, into regional planning activities

Health & Planning activities include:

• Collaborating with the Atlanta Regional Commission, the CDC, the Rollins Schol of Public Health at Emory University, and the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development at Georgia Tech in promoting the use of Health Impact Assessments and other tools and processes in regional planning activities.
• "Land Use Planning for Public Health" is a guide ARHF prepared with the Atlanta Regional Commission for the National Association of Local Boards of Health to teach their members the principles of land use planning. It includes processes for them to use to protect and improve the health of populations affected by changes in the built environment. 

CLICK HERE
to see our
"LAND USE PLANNING FOR PUBLIC HEALTH" GUIDE
(PDF format - click here to download the latest version of acrobat reader)