TAKE FIVE!

April 06, 2021

Amanda Langseder:
Hi, I’m Amanda. And welcome to Sullivan 180 Presents Take Five!. Our guest today is Colleen Emery, the Healthy Communities Initiatives program manager for Sullivan Renaissance. Welcome Colleen, and thank you so much for being here today.

Colleen Emery:
It’s a pleasure to be here, Amanda. I really will enjoy this opportunity to talk to you about our amazing program.

Amanda Langseder:
Looking forward to it. Can you please introduce yourself a little bit more and tell us a little bit about your role at Sullivan Renaissance?

Colleen Emery:
I’ve been with Sullivan Renaissance 16 years, so I’ve been through a lot of transformations. And what was initially our environmental initiatives program? We shifted about three years ago to, For Healthy Communities. So I managed the program. I helped the applicants get their grants ready. I brainstorm projects. Call me with any questions anytime. And I love out of the box ideas. So what do you want on any initiative or plan that you may have?

Amanda Langseder:
That’s great. Thank you. What is a Healthy Communities Initiative grant and how would one go about even applying for one?

Colleen Emery:
Well, the Healthy Community Initiatives program is intended to improve and promote the social, physical and environmental health and wellness of Sullivan County residents. So we have two funding opportunities there for municipalities schools, religious groups, community groups. Our first opportunity is a project-based initiative and that funding is up to $2,500. And this typically for tangible improvements to parks, walking trails, bike paths, master plans for trails, recreational equipment in parks, things like that. And there there’s a one-to-one match required for that. So we have to look at the criteria when you’re applying for the grants. We also have another program funding opportunity, which is up to $500. And that’s typically for fun runs, public yoga, literally plucking events that promote activity, things like that.

Amanda Langseder:
That’s great. I’m sure you’ve seen hundreds of applications and I’m wondering what are some of the ideas from those past grant applications that have had a significant impact on the health of the communities they’re in

Colleen Emery:
The most major one that has had an impact that comes to mind right away is there was an initiative at Ben Coser school in Fallsburg in 2016 by Lee Exner and Mark Spina, who were two educators there. And they decided to bring back the trail at Ben Coser, it’s been a four year project and since they put in the trail, it’s been a lot of work, a lot of collaboration with the town municipality, a lot of support. The school passed a policy. This is before COVID, the children need to be outside on the trail before school, during school and afterschool. So that has had a huge impact on that school community and also the Fallsburg community after they put in the trail they were awarded a funding opportunity from Cornell and Sullivan Renaissance to purchase snow shoes. So the children and staff got out there in the winter on their snow shoes. And Lisa Lyons from Morgan Outdoors came down and taught us how to do it. She had this really cool book on identifying scat which the kids loved and it was really exciting. That was an exciting project. The Berryville farmer’s market, I mean, that was funded two or three years ago, which has brought a lot of activity to Berryville on the weekends and has grown with nutrition education and food education demonstrations. There’s a Pearl Street Community Garden in Livingston Manor next to the health clinic there. So the food is grown and put inside the clinic with recipes and nutrition information. We funded a solar project at the Livingston Manor library several years ago, and they had an educational kiosk inside that showed how much energy was saved. Most recently we funded Kesco Claus, which is the mountain biking organization. Oh, there’s so many things that pop up mobile farmer’s market that goes around the County. You’ve seen the beautiful band with the vegetables on it that takes produce towards borough Monticello, things like that. And then tied to our edible garden projects, the Catskill edible garden project. We funded indoor growth stations in an effort to bring the outside in because the schools aren’t in session on summer and we wanted all the children to have opportunity to see how their food grows and be part of that. So they grew up pea shoots and things like that. And that has had an incredible impact on a lot of children in the schools.

Amanda Langseder:
You know, Colleen, I knew about so many of those projects, but didn’t realize that they were really seeded with Healthy Communities Initiative grants. I think that’s a great list and a great explanation of a program that can start out as that seed and really have the stone in the water huge ripple effect and grow lots of other programs that help us grow a culture of health. So that was really tremendous and lots of great ideas for others to learn from. Can you let me know, is there anything else that you would like to share about the Healthy Communities, Initiatives grants?

Colleen Emery:
One thing, I’ve learned a lot of these projects have been able to get other support, the larger projects can go for grants, but our program goal is to really bring people together to collaborate on all the efforts that are going on in Sullivan County. And what has been so encouraging for me is all of these projects. Even the indoor grow stations, we have collaborators coming out of the woodwork, Root Roofs Farms, Browning Green Farm. We have a chef in the classrooms. In Fallsburg, the businesses that have supported these projects. Once they hear what’s going on and they see what’s going on, it’s kind of like a ripple effect. They all want to be part of it. So it’s more of the collaborations that I see growing, which is wonderful. Like with 180, we’re collaborating with 180, we collaborate with Sullivan County planning on the Bailey Trail and Monticello, the land bank donated this property. And we partnered with Sullivan County planning and we are developing a trail. And then the forest school, which is doing some outdoor education. So all of our guests are being brought together around these healthy initiatives. That seems to be what people want.

Amanda Langseder:
Your program is just a great example of how absolutely one thing can start and it becomes a ripple effect with lots of partners and that it takes a village. It takes all of us doing a little bit of this work together to make it happen. Let me just know the best way to stay up to date with you and with Sullivan Renaissance and the Healthy Communities Initiatives,

Colleen Emery:
The first thing to do is to go to our website, SullivanRenaissance.org, and sign up for our e-blast. You’ll get that once a month or twice a month. And it tells you everything that’s going on. And if you’re a social media person, you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Amanda Langseder:
That’s great. Thank you so much. The blast is the most current. Okay, great. Thank you so much for joining us today, Colleen, we really appreciate it. Sullivan County is truly a healthier place because of you and the work that you’re doing with the Healthy Communities Initiatives. So thank you very much.

Colleen Emery:
Thank you. I want to say it’s not me. It’s all the volunteers out there. They’re awesome. Thank you, Amanda. Have a beautiful day.