If
you are
attending the TRB Annual Meeting this January there are several
Health and Transportation
related sessions and meetings that may be of interest. They can be found by
searching the TRB Online
interactive program at https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/interactiveprogram.
You can even browse the program without registering.
One
major
item to note is a workshop that the H+T Subcommittee will host
on Sunday,
January 10, 2016 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the Washington DC
Convention
Center. The workshop
will focus on Institutionalizing
Health in Transportation Agency Practice.
Since
the
Subcommittee’s inception 5 years ago, we have noticed an
increased interest in
the integration of public health in transportation and
transportation agencies across
the United States. As
awareness of the
health impacts of transportation grows, transportation agencies
are looking for
ways to better understand the connections and tools needed to
integrate health
in transportation decisions. We
have
seen much success.
Given
substantial
progress to date, the 2016 workshop will focus on how public
health
can be institutionalized in transportation agency practice. Key topics addressed will
include:
• workforce development
and key skills,
• leadership buy in,
and
• funding.
The
overall
objective of the workshop is to help transportation
professionals incorporate
health into their agencies' work through four examples of how
this has been
done by other organizations around the country.
By the end of the day, attendees will be able to identify
at least one
strategy for institutionalizing health in their area of
expertise, which has
the potential to work in their state/local context. In addition, attendees will
be able to
identify at least three new tools and resources for
accomplishing this goal.
The
workshop features transportation agencies
and, where possible, their public health counterparts from
around the country; as
well as national organizations that are providing key resources
for these
initiatives. Participants
will share
practices and lessons learned on how to jump start pilot or
short-term grant funded
initiatives that can be leveraged and grown into longer-term
programs to integrate
public health into transportation decisions.
The
format will begin with state,
regional and local case studies, followed by an introduction to
some key
national resources for jurisdictions that want to take their
practice to the
next level. The workshop
will conclude
with a lightning round for information sharing and discussion. Audience participation
encouraged.
-- Ed Christopher