Jefferson County Department of Health, Birmingham, Alabama

Project Description

The Jefferson County Department of Health, Birmingham, Alabama, project goals are to build and enhance effective partnerships to improve environmental health capacity for designing and delivering interventions for mosquito control.

The objectives of this project are to

build a sustainable partnership to address mosquito control and air quality
expand and enhance the capacities of project partners through training and learning sessions
implement a “best practice” mosquito control program

Accomplishments

Year 1 achievements include the following:

partnership building (new partners asking to be part of the project);
train-and-learn activities (quarterly train-and-learn workshops have been conducted);
community engagement (involvement with neighborhood association);
intervention activities (workshops held at neighborhood school and Head Start facility); and
rap video and audio tape development regarding the 5 D’s for mosquito protection by the Community Entrepreneurial Institute, a youth organization partnering with the project.

Barriers

Barriers that impeded project implementation included

competing political agendas,
educating the community as to causes and solutions for vector-control intervention (i.e., cause and effect), and
change in leadership at the municipal level.

What Is Next

Maintaining and expanding a sustainable partner group to address mosquito control.
Maintaining partnership and expanding membership.
Applying other best-practice literature to partnership team-building skills and experiences.
Maintaining partnership contacts and relationship building through remainder of project.
Working with neighborhood partners to develop an eco-scape project in mosquito-prone area.

Links and Products

Alabama Vector Management Society

Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases

Top of Page