Healthy Communities Programs in Slovakia
 These three elements form a strong foundation for the work of any successful Healthy Communities Program.
The Turcianske Teplice partners assembled a multi-disciplinary task force comprised of the town officials including the mayor, deputies, and environmental engineer, as well as a teacher, a priest, a coach, a social worker, and other interested residents. Group leaders engaged citizens in an open dialogue to learn different perspectives on community problems. Together with their American partners, they systematically compiled a list of health priorities and the resources available to the community to address these problems. Partners developed a community survey, which was administered to 1,620 school-age children to assess the impact that the transformation was having on families in the town. Residents drew on the expertise of US partners at Cleveland’s MetroHealth System to initiate a fund-raising drive to purchase a badly needed ambulance, open a town Health Advisory and In the nearby towns of Martin and Banska Bystrica, where a burgeoning elderly population was straining the already overburdened healthcare system, community leaders worked to develop home care and hospice services as a cost-effective alternative to hospital care for the chronically ill. Residents collaborated with their US partners from The MetroHealth System to address the health and social problems of local youth, focusing on educating teens about the risks of smoking and creating better leisure activities and job opportunities for them. Petrzalka (Slovakia)/Kansas City (Missouri) Partnership In Petrzalka, lead Slovak partner the Aid to Children at Risk Foundation administered a groundbreaking assessment survey to more than 800 young adults between the ages of 12 and 18 to develop a demographic portrait of Petrzalka's teen drug and alcohol use patterns and related risk factors. Partners then analyzed the data collected to better determine community needs.
The Petrzalka partners adapted a planning strategy developed by the Missouri State Health Department to combat the sharp increases in drug and alcohol abuse among youth revealed by the survey. The strategy provides a community with information that enables it to shift its focus from responding to acute crises to designing systems that plan for health, promote healthy behaviors and provide health services that are appropriate for its needs. Foundation leaders began holding monthly drug forums where parents, children, and other community members meet to discuss drug prevention and treatment strategies. They provided a safe haven with opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities, peer discussion groups, and other counseling and support to keep youth at risk out of harm's way.
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Education Center, and carry out a comprehensive survey on "family stress" to determine health and behavioral patterns that contribute to the breakdown of the family.
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