Helpful Resources Croatia Program Tools and Resources Croatian Healthy Cities Network (external link) AIHA Split, Croatia / New Jersey Partnership (external link)

AIHA established a Healthy Communities partnership to focus on building community capacity to mobilize key stakeholders for change. AIHA collaborated with the Croatian Healthy Cities Network (HCN), whose Network Support Center is located at the Andrija Stampar School of Public Health at the University of Zagreb Medical School. HCN member cities applied to participate in the partnership to improve the use of community resources, promote community participation, and develop interventions to improve the overall quality of life within the community.

AIHA and USAID/Zagreb representatives interviewed representatives from the applicant cities during the Croatian Healthy Cities annual meeting during the Summer School of Health Promotion sponsored by the Stampar School in the town of Motovun. After the interviews and proposal review process, the city of Split was the Croatian city selected to participate in the Healthy Communities partnership. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) School of Public Health in Piscataway was the institution and community selected to be the US partner in this partnership.

After conducting a needs assessment and agreeing on program priorities, the Split/New Jersey partnership decided to focus its activities on alcohol use and abuse among adolescents ages 12-17 in Split. (See additional information about the youth alcohol intervention in Croatia.)

Tools and Resources:

• Youth Risk Behavior Survey (English / Croatian)

Additional Reading:

• Project Northland in Croatia: A Community-Based Adolescent Alcohol Prevention Intervention (PowerPoint presentation, also in PDF format)
• “Project Northland” in Split, Croatia: Community Action to Prevent Youth Alcohol Use (PowerPoint presentation, also in PDF format)
• Reaching Out to Patients and Communities (AIHA CommonHealth, Summer 1997)
• AIHA Partners Work in Schools to Curb Adolescent Drinking and Smoking (AIHA Connections, January 2003)
• Healthy Cities Start from Healthy Communities: AIHA Partners Share Experience in Empowering Health Promotion and Social Safety (AIHA Connections, December 2003)