YouthBuild is a holistic comprehensive job training program that provides education, leadership development, community service, and housing construction skills to youth ages 16-24.  As part of their community service, youth met at Pine Street to support the volunteer garden stewards in a variety of tasks for the annual garden fall clean-up. Youth received directions from volunteer garden steward Laurie Berrios, a Kingston resident and member the Grow Well Focus Team.  “Students were curious how a burial ground was built, so we spent some time reviewing the history and then got to work”, said Berrios. Berrios led youth in a variety of tasks which included moving mounds of mulch, repairing broken garden beds, removing invasive plants, removing any dead wood, and moving and preparing soil for its hibernation.

Berrios explained to students the history of the African Burial Grounds. The garden itself, sits in a field separate and adjacent to the sacred burial grounds which were identified by archeologist through Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR Scan) and continue to be studied. This sacred site was used as a burial ground for enslaved Africans between the 1700s and mid-1800s. In 2019 it was protected by Harambee and the Kingston Land Trust in collaboration with Scenic Hudson and will be converted into a community memorial site. YouthBuild students keep an active schedule between hands-on learning in the construction trades through projects across the city, and classroom time focused on academics as they prepare for their equivalency exams. The fall clean-up was an experience and learn more about soil, vegetables, plants, and insects. After all, gardens are magical places of continuous hands-on learning. Students even nibbled on some edible plants for the first time and made friends with a few bugs. They also created a space for themselves to rest and reflect which they called the “Friendship Circle”.

This year’s local growing season was impacted by extreme weather conditions. Kingston endured weeks of drought and heavy storms in summer peak months. The July storms caused took down tree limbs, partially destroying the garden’s garage structure. YouthBuild’s helping hands moved contents from the garage into the basement for safe keeping through the winter until the garage can be repaired.

Despite the unpredictable forces of nature any garden is vulnerable to, the Pine Steet Garden produced various flowers including blazing star, butterfly milkweed, cardinal flower. In the periled vegetable beds, okra, green peppers, eggplant, test kale, culinary and medicinal herbs and parsley were harvested. Plant starters were lovingly donated by Moonrise Apothecary and The YFarm, neighbors, board members and volunteers. The Grow Well Team is grateful to Ulster YouthBuild for their support winterizing the gardens at the Pine Street Burial Ground and the work they performed late summer, designing and building a storage shed at the Rondout Community Gardens.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, preparing your garden for its fall clean-up might include removing any diseased plants, add to or start a compost pile, using your fall leaves to creature a nutritious mulch for soil, protecting fruit trees from rodents, crop rotation, test to improve your soils’ PH levels, consider planting garlic before the ground freezes, and remember to remove any garden supports such as cages, stakes, and trellises. For more detailed information, check out the Farmer’s Almanac tips on preparing your garden for winter: 10 Tips for Preparing Your Garden for Winter | The Old Farmer’s Almanac

By: Tracy Snyder, Program Manager for Physical Activity in Early Care and Education, Family of Woodstock

As a Program Manager for Nutrition and Physical Activity in Early Care and Education (ECE) at Family of Woodstock, crossing the midline is something I always look for. A child will not be able to do the simplest of tasks if not given the opportunity to cross the midline on a daily basis. 

So let us talk more about what the midline is, and how to support children doing so in their development.

The Midline. What Is It Exactly?

The midline is an imaginary line drawn from the head to the feet that separates the left and right halves of the body. Crossing this midline means that a body part (i.e., hand or foot) is able to spontaneously move over to the other side of the body.

The brain is divided into two sides, called the left and right hemispheres. There is a mass of tissue between the two, called the corpus callosum.  It contains nerve fibers that allow the two hemispheres to communicate with each other in order to coordinate learning and movement. A lack of midline crossing may indicate that the left and right sides of the brain are not communicating well across the corpus callosum.

The Midline and Child Development

Typically, children begin crossing the midline when they start reaching for toys at age 4-6 months. This skill continues to develop throughout childhood and is usually mastered at around age 8 or 9.

Bilateral movements (when both limbs are used in unison to contract the muscles, which creates force, and subsequently moves a given load) and interaction with the environment (such as caretakers playing with the child; objects being available to grasp) are important factors in trunk rotation. If a child avoids trunk rotation and/or moves the trunk stiffly as a unit, this may affect the child’s ability to freely cross the midline.

Some children may struggle to easily cross the midline. When a child shows trepidation in reaching, stepping, or looking across their center, this is known as midline crossing inhibition. This delay can be seen when a child hesitates or is clumsy when doing gross motor activities which require the arm or leg to cross over. A child who is grappling with crossing the midline will also struggle to get dressed, write, or cut with scissors.

If children have difficulty crossing the midline you may notice that they:

• Have delays in crawling
• Switch hands when working on fine motor skills such as writing or cutting
• Rotate or turn their entire body to retrieve objects on the other side of them
• Skip or do jumping jacks in an uncoordinated manner

How Crossing the Midline is Important To Growth

Reading and writing requires you to be able to smoothly and without effort cross the midline, as does completing math worksheets and navigating the recess field.  Related to being unable to easily cross the midline, children who struggle with ADHD often do not have a dominant hand, something called mixed dominance. This can also cause problems with coordination, reading, math, and attention. Another sign for possible midline crossing challenges and ADHD, studies have also shown that children diagnosed with ADHD tend to prefer sports such as soccer, track and field, and football as crossing the midline is not required for these activities.

In addition, hand dominance and bilateral integration skills are also needed to cut and to dress oneself.  Cognition develops because both sides of the brain are engaged and must work together during learning tasks, (left to right visual scanning across pages in a book, moving a toy to a basket, and noticing details on a page in their classwork).  It also benefits social-emotional development so children build self esteem while participating in activities (sports, school activities, gym class games).  Frustration and anxiety are reduced at school when children are able to participate in these activities.

Parents who notice that their children are experiencing developmental delays and show signs of mixed dominance should be on the lookout for early symptoms of other challenges.  By correctly identifying these complications, parents can quickly get the resources they need to support their child’s development.

So how do you encourage an infant or toddler to cross the midline?

• Clap hands at midline
• Move a toy across the baby’s line of vision so they have to track the object.
• Tummy time is so important!  Place toys in front of baby to encourage reaching.
• Gently take baby’s arms and hug them across their chest.
• You can have toddlers lie on their back and reach for their opposite foot.
• Give them a toy in one hand and encourage them to grab it with the other.
• To work on midline crossing skills with preschool and older children, try throwing, catching, and kicking objects.
• Blow bubbles and pop them!  Dance!
• Yoga is an excellent way to get your kids crossing over.

Interested in Learning More?

Creating Healthy Schools and Communities (CHSC), is a program of the City of Kingston’s Department of Health and Wellness that supports policy, system, and environmental changes to make it easier for everyone in Kingston to make healthy choices. The goals of CHSC are to improve food and nutrition guidelines in food service venues, support the planning to increase safe and accessible physical activity, and improve policies and practices to support physical activity and improved nutrition in schools and early care and education centers.

If you are an Early Care and Education Center provider that would like to learn more about this fantastic program, contact: 

Tracy Snyder, Program Manager for Nutrition and Physical Activity in ECE

tsnyder@familyofwoodstockinc.org

(845) 331-7080 ext. 157

Westchester Medical Center Health Network/HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley

1. Hot Weather Safety Tips

Last June, WMCHN/HAHV shared some hot weather safety precautions that are recommended for when temperatures climb over 90 degrees.

They included:

• Limit your exposure to the heat, sun or locations without proper ventilation.
• Wear breathable, lightweight, light-colored clothing.
• Check on the elderly, who may be unaware of their limitations or may spend too much time exposed due to slow movement.
• Drink plenty of water before, during and after outdoor activity.
• Avoid alcoholic beverages that can have an adverse effect on your body’s ability to regulate heat.

Full article

2. Lyme Disease Prevention

In 2014, HAHV’s quarterly newsletter shared some evergreen tips about how to protect yourself from tick-borne diseases.

The tips, from local physicians Dr. Marc Tack, Dr. Andrew Yanofsky and Dr. Aarathi Nagaraja, included:

• Mow your lawn regularly and steer clear of brushy and grassy areas
• Do a body check for ticks after spending time outside
• Use a tick collar on pets
• If you’re bitten by a tick, remove it immediately

Full Issue

Health Quest

3. Drowning Prevention Tips

In June, Health Quest’s Christina Mezzone, MD, passed on information form the CD on their blog that showed drowning as the leading cause of death for kids aged 1 to 4, and the third leading cause of unintentional injury deaths for kids ages 5 to 19.

They shared a bunch of safety tips for parents, including:

• All pools should have a fence surrounding all four sides that is at least four feet high, unclimbable and with a self-latching, self-closing gate.
• Pool covers and pool alarms can be additional layers of protection to a fence.
• Keep toys and inflatables out of the pool when not in use.
• Even if there is a lifeguard, assign a “water watcher” to constantly supervise children when they are in the water. The water watcher should not glance at a cell phone or a book during that time.
• Learn CPR.

Full Article

4. Co-Existing With Poison Ivy

If you’re spending any time hiking this summer, you’re most likely going to come into contact with poison ivy. Make sure you know what it looks like.

Health Quest’s Shantala Sonnad, MD said that if you come into think you touched poison ivy, “immediately wash the oil from your skin and clothes with cool water and soap for 10 minutes.”

Dr. Sonnad recommended using over-the-counter treatments to ease the symptoms, if needed, and to avoid scratching the poison ivy while recovering. If you get poison ivy on the “neck, face, eyes genitals” or experience “unbearable symptoms,” seek medical attention.

Full Article

5. Farmers Markets: Where Food is Medicine

Last June, Health Quest Clinical Nutrition Supervisor Indrani Dhar, PHC espoused several reasons why getting more plant-based foods from a local farmers market or farm stand on our plates is a good idea.

In Kingston, a couple of places to get farm-fresh produce are:

• The Kingston Farmers Market on Wall Street in Uptown Kingston every Saturday
• Kingston YMCA Farm Project Stand every Thursday from 3:30 to 6 p.m. at 507 Broadway in Kingston until October 31
• YMCA Mobile Market: Tuesdays from 3 to 4 p.m. at alternating HealthAlliance Hospitals and Tuesdays from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at We Got the Juice, at 694 Broadway in Kingston, until September 10

Full Article

6. How to Grill for Health AND Taste

Dr. Michael Dubin wrote about how to make some small changes to be healthier while grilling, including:

• Choosing meat with less fat in it, like chicken thighs or shrimp
• Grilling fresh fruits and vegetables
• Eating hot dogs, hamburgers and sausages in moderation
• Choosing gas grills over charcoal to produce fewer carcinogens

Full Article

DEC

7. Healthy Hiking Tips

One of the DEC’s Ulster County Forest Rangers, Howard Kreft, recently gave an interview to Spectrum News on healthy hiking tips.

They included:

• Wearing sturdy footwear with ankle support
• Bringing a map, compass, extra clothing, and a cell phone/GPS
• Fill out the hiking registry at the start of any trail
• Hike with at least one other person
• Let someone know that you’re going hiking

Full Interview

Ulster County Department of Health

8. Have a Heart-Healthy Summer

The UCHD recently shared ten tips for a Heart-Healthy Summer, which were put together originally by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association.

They include:

• Learn hands-only CPR (video here: http://www.heart.org/handsonlycpr)
• Stay hydrated
• Exercise smarter, not harder during the cooler parts of the day
• Wear clothing that allows for the evaporation of sweat
• Try a Mediterranean-style diet
• Incorporate physical activity into a regular day
• Make your own fruit pops
• Protect yourself from the sun
• Stay inside when it’s hot out
• Learn the symptoms of heat stroke and heat exhaustion

Read the full tip sheet here: Full Tip Sheet

9. Have Immunization Records Handy for Campers

New Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan announced last month that “any children or staff members at summer camps must have the measles vaccine unless they have a medical exemption.”

Go to Spectrum News for the full story or call the Ulster County Department of Health at 845-340-3009 for more information.

Mental Health Association in Ulster County

10. Free Summer Support Classes

The Mental Health Association in Ulster County offers 11 regular free drop-in groups for adults at their home at 300 Aaron Court in Kingston.

To find more free health groups and classes in Kingston and Ulster County, check out this blog post we put out a few months ago.

Family of Woodstock has been a long-time partner to the City of Kingston in providing services to the people of Midtown at the Everette Hodge Center. The current director of programming is Sue Weed, a long-time social worker and human services specialist.

“I originally was born in the Dominican Republic, and grew up in Miami, Florida,” she says. “I moved to the area five years ago with my family, and I heard about Family through a friend of mine. She told me about the Center, and it sounded like a great fit for me.”

Sue says that the program’s main focus is on their after-school children’s program, which is an entryway for many Midtown families into other resources and supports that are available through Family and other agencies.

“Our mission is to help as many families as possible in Midtown,” she says. “If someone comes in through the after-school program, and they’re here, they ask about what else we do. We can connect them with programs on food insecurity, educational programs, or our social worker who specializes in helping families who are struggling in DSS motels and homelessness.

The latest development at the Center? Thanks to a Community Development Block Grant acquired by the City, and a grant via Family of Woodstock, the Center will have a newly upgraded kitchen, complete with walk-in cooler, commercial grade oven and refrigerator. The Center is relied upon by many community members to provide thousands of meals a year, both for kids who attend the Center’s programming and also at other sites like the Boys and Girls Club and the Rondout Neighborhood Center.

For Sue, the most rewarding part of the job is seeing the kids grow.

“The kids get exposed to different things they wouldn’t be exposed to,” she says. “They have bike clubs, a nature club, and they get to explore different interests and passions. Two of our kids got to audition for the Energy Dance Company, and some of them made it through the audition process.”

Who was Everette Hodge?

Everette Hodge (1911-1991) was founder and president of the Newburgh Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is credited with the integration of the Newburgh Police Department, organized the Highland and Ellenville NAACP branches, and also was the long-time president of the Ulster County NAACP.

He was the first black full-time employee of the Newburgh Post Office while also running the Everette Hodge Funeral Home on 21 Franklin Street, which is now the home of the Everette Hodge Community Center.

In a 1975 profile in the Daily Freeman, Hodge was described as someone who was “jousting with the establishment for as long as most people can remember. He’s kept a number of people on their toes over the years, antagonized quite a few more and, through it all, insists his only concern is the betterment of the community for both black and white.”

Hodge commented at the time that he was irked by the “conspicuous absence of blacks in appointive governmental posts in this area.”

“We have to abide by the laws and ordinances just like everyone else,” he said. “But we have no input. We have the right to participate… government position is like money –it carries power and influence.”

A sample of some of the issues that Hodge organized and advocated for were better conditions for Midtown tenants, community policing issues, conditions in local prisons and education reform.

“We can build a better climate among all races and we can help make our community a better community,” he said. “But we can only do it together.”

What is the Everette Hodge Community Center?

In its lifespan as a funeral home, the space at 15-21 Franklin Street was often used as a de facto community center, holding various community meetings, functions and banquets. In 1998, funding came from a “Kingston-Newburgh Enterprise Corporation” to build out the center in its current form, and placed its ownership in the hands of the City of Kingston, which has partnered with non-profit agencies like Family of Woodstock, SUNY Ulster, the Tobacco-Free Action Coalition, the Ulster County Health Department, area churches, the YWCA of Ulster County, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, and too many others to name to offer programming and services for the residents of Midtown Kingston.

In 2000, the Center was featured in the Daily Freeman for offering a program for over 100 area kids to learn communication and computing skills thanks to a partnership between SUNY ulster and the city’s Parks and Recreation Department’s summer day camps.

In 2005, the lead program of the Center was called Rewards for Excellence, coordinated by the late Sandra Thompson-Hopgood, which provided a space for area kids to hang out while receiving anti-drug counseling and harm reduction services.

Starting around 2006, Family of Woodstock located its Kingston Cares program at the Center, which, thanks to their old Facebook page, ran a number of programs that involved youth and families in Midtown, including:

• A Community Survey of 600 homes in Midtown
• A Dig Kids Community Garden project, which ultimately transitioned to the YMCA and blossomed into the YMCA Farm Project
• A partnership with the Queens Galley to provide free cooking classes for youth
• Putting on Midtown Make a Difference Day with many other community groups

In 2012, Kingston Cares began an after-school program at the Center. While the program was successful, they noticed that many of the kids involved were hungry. They started out by providing simple things like granola bars and popcorn, but staff realized that many of the kids wouldn’t going to have a full dinner available at home. Today, kids at the Hodge Center after school program get a multi-component dinner every day, with much of the produce coming from the Farm to Pantry program in collaboration with the Rondout Valley Growers Association and UlsterCorps.

Megan Weiss-Rowe, who has been involved with the Hodge Center and Family of Woodstock since 2005, said the meals go beyond just providing food to the kids (which is still important).

“Our chef Tina has pushed the transition from a walk-in buffet meal to a family-style meal,” she says. “All the prepared food is put in the middle of the table, and the children serve each other and themselves. Every day, the kids are sitting down, they’re talking about what happened that day, who their favorite superhero is, what their favorite food is.”

While the names and partners of the programs have changed over the years, the mission of the Center is to provide a “safe and supportive environment for the Kingston community through educational, environmental, youth and community programs and health and human services.”

This film focuses on what happens over time to a person when they experience trauma and toxic stress during childhood. Researchers have found that traumatic events in a person’s life can cause long-term damage to their brains and their bodies. This can put a person at a higher risk for diseases and even cause a person to die sooner than someone who doesn’t experience trauma.

Trauma can happen to people of all ages, all skin colors, in all parts of our community. Nobody chooses to have this in their life. Families, doctors, schools, and mental health workers can learn to be more understanding of what can be done to help children heal from trauma and become strong and resilient.

A panel discussion will follow with trauma and resiliency experts: Beth Lewis-Jackson, Director of Special Ed for KCSD, Beatriz Vides, Founder of Crossnore School & Children’s Home, Dr. Marta Sanchez, a physician at the Institute for Family Health, Mary Beth Coons, founder of the Resilient Child Fund, and Esther, a peer advocate. Conversations will center on how to build resiliency in our community and schools.

Childcare for ages 5 and up will be available from 5:30-8:30 at the Everette Hodge Community Center Barn, 21 Franklin St., Kingston, when previously registered for at http://bit.ly/LiveWellKingston-Childcare or by calling (845) 334-3909. Light refreshments will be served. The organizers request that participants bring their own water bottles to reduce waste.

“This film introduces innovative programs that can significantly support children.” Says Emily Flynn, Director of Health and Wellness for the City of Kingston. “I hope our event will increase awareness of trauma and the connection to adverse health outcomes.”

This event is a collaboration of:

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has a fascinating life expectancy calculator; plug in your exact address, and it’ll generate a life expectancy figure that is based on decades of neighborhood by neighborhood data.

The Foundation explains the wide disparities as being more complex than having access to health insurance:

“Improving health and longevity in communities starts with ensuring access to healthy food, good schools, affordable housing, and jobs that provide us the resources necessary to care for ourselves and our families—in essence, the types of conditions that can help keep us from getting sick in the first place.”

If you live in Kingston and find yourself agreeing with that, you’re in the right place! Live Well Kingston promotes the advancement of a healthy and active community by bringing partners and residents together to facilitate policy, environmental and systems changes.

We’ve already written about how to access health insurance navigation and sliding scale medical services, how to find free health and support groups, and how different organizations are mitigating food insecurity in our community. Today, we’re going to share some info about the connection between housing and health, and link to some local resources and ways that you can help be a part of housing policy in Kingston in the future.

The Connection Between Housing and Health

According to HealthAffairs, there are four pathways where there’s an intersection between quality, affordable housing and health outcomes and costs.

1. Stability

Being without a stable home is detrimental to one’s health, causing people to face higher chances of physical and mental health trauma and personal injuries. In addition to directly affecting people’s health, these traumas also cause high healthcare costs in emergency rooms as “multi-visit patients,” as written about in a recent Kingston Times article:

“Among health care executives and in medical journals this population is known as “high utilizers” or, more recently, “multi-visit patients.” To frontline ER staff they are known colloquially (though not at HealthAlliance’s hospitals, officials insist) as “frequent flyers.” While a few have chronic medical conditions like COPD and diabetes that require frequent admission to the hospital, the majority come to the ER suffering from a complicated mix of homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse.”

People who aren’t technically homeless but still housing insecure are also more likely to face poor health outcomes compared to people with stable housing situations. One example of an impact: not having stable housing makes it difficult to store expensive prescription medication, making it much harder to actually use the medication.

2. Quality & Safety

Even if people are housed in a relatively stable way, there are a number of environmental factors that are correlated with poor health outcomes. One of the most common factors is lead exposure, which leads to irreversible brain and nervous system damage for children.

One support we have in our community is the Ulster County Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. The program provides free home lead inspections and “educates the community about the dangers of lead-based paint; how lead affects our bodies, how to identify lead paint hazards and how to use lead safe work practices to appropriately deal with lead paint hazards, so that we have no more lead poisoned kids.”

According to the County’s website, homes built before 1978 may contain lead paint both inside and out, and about 87% of our housing stock was built before 1950.

The County’s Department of Health provides free home inspections to anyone in the 12401 zip code; tenants, landlords and homeowners can all request appointments. Outside of the 12401 zip code, free inspections are available if a child in your home is found to have an elevated lead level of 5-14 micrograms per deciliter of blood.

*If you are a tenant, please note that your landlord will be notified if lead paint is detected in your home.*

Other common housing conditions that are correlated with poor health:

• Water leaks
• Poor ventilation
• Dirty carpets
• Pest infestation
• Exposure to high or low temperatures
• Residential crowding
• Second-hand smoke

Removing or remediating these conditions can improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs. Please contact the City of Kingston’s Building Safety and Zoning Enforcement department for more information.

An available support for paying heating bills is the Home Energy Assistance Program, which provides funding to low-income individuals over the age of sixty.

3. Affordability

In 2017, 55% of Ulster County families spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing, designating them as “cost-burdened.”

29.8% of those households were considered “severely cost-burdenered” because they spent more than 50 percent of their income on housing.

Studies have found that low-income families who are cost-burdened are much less likely to have a regular source of medical care, are likely to postpone needed treatment, and 23% more likely to face difficulty purchasing food.

Some local housing affordability supports include:

RUPCO’s Emergency Assistance Fund

RUPCO’s Housing Choice Voucher Program (Open from March 1 to April 1)

Many local healthcare agencies that provide patient navigator services will connect patients with needed housing supports.

4. Neighborhood

One’s physical surroundings where they live have an effect on health. Here are some of the biggest factors:

Availability of public transportation to work

In 2014, a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health said that more available public transportation can equal more physical activity and reduced risks of obesity, diabetes and premature death for residents:

“There is convincing evidence that engaging in regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity reduces the risks of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and premature death. Active commuting is receiving increased attention in this context because its routine-based nature provides regular physical activity during the week. Active commuting can be performed walking or cycling all the way to work or as part of a multimodal trip (e.g., walking or cycling in combination with using public transportation), that involves some walking or cycling to a transit stop, transfers and a walk to the end location, or driving in a car some of the way in combination with walking, cycling or public transportation. Evidence has shown that active commuters are more likely to reach the 2010 WHO recommendations of 150 min of moderate intensity physical activity (MPA) per week. Public transportation commuters have been found to accumulate significantly more MPA per day (5–10 min) compared to non-public transportation users.”

Grocery stores or food stands with nutritious food

In 2013, a national research and action institute called PolicyLink, in collaboration with a nonprofit called The Food Trust, wrote about the link between access to healthy food and better health outcomes:

“Living closer to healthy food retail is associated with better eating habits and decreased risk for obesity and diet-related diseases… action must be taken across all levels… to leverage resources and target efforts to the places with the greatest need.”

Safe spaces to exercise and play in

A 2016 article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health said that living near well-designed parks is good for nearby residents’ health:

“Proximity to [a] park reported by residents conducive for physical activity (with walking paths, large fields, playgrounds for children and tennis courts) was associated with physical activity.”

Green spaces

In 2015, an article in the American Journal of Public Health said that just the sight of green space can help reduce the stress of passersby:

“Ambulatory heart rate [were monitored] as participants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania walked past vacant lots before and after a greening remediation treatment of randomly selected lots. Being in view of a greened vacant lot decreased heart rate significantly more than did being in view of a nongreened vacant lot or not in view of any vacant lot. Remediating neighborhood blight may reduce stress and improve health.

Safe Routes to School

In 2015, a study in Injury Epidemiology titled Association of the Safe Routes to School program with school-age pedestrian and bicyclist injury risk in Texas said that Safe Routes to School has a demonstrable impact on pedestrian and bicyclist safety:

“Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a federally funded transportation program for facilitating physically active commuting to and from school in children through improvements of the built environment, such as sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and safe crossings.”

After the implementation of the program the authors found:

“The annualized rates of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries between pre- and post-SRTS periods declined 42.5% in children aged 5 to 19 years and 33.0% in adults aged 30 to 64 years. These results indicate that the implementation of the SRTS program in Texas may have contributed to declines in school-age pedestrian and bicyclist injuries.”

In our own community, The City of Kingston was recently awarded a $535,000 grant through the Safe Routes to School program to improve pedestrian safety on Henry Street, from Broadway to the George Washington Elementary School. A preliminary design will be presented at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 5 in the auditorium at the George Washington Elementary School at 67 Wall Street in Kingston. The design will include a complete reconstruction of sidewalks, tree plantings along the street, a side path for walkers and nonmotorized traffic, a secure and covered bike rack at the school, and traffic-calming measures in front of the school. We will update this post with a link to the presentation after the meeting has taken place.

How to get involved

Housing and neighborhoods are not just about having a place to stay and keep your possessions; they have major implications on community and individual health outcomes. Beyond the programs and initiatives listed in this article, you can add your voice to the conversation on the future of housing in Kingston, by participating in one of seven housing forums at City Hall. The dates and times are listed below:

March 6 Homeowners, at 6:30pm
March 11 Tenants, at 6:30pm
April 8 Landlords, at 6:30pm
April 29 Developers, at 6:30pm
May 1 Homeless and housing insecure, at 6:30pm
May 29 Policy advocates, at 6:30pm

As always, if you like this article, please sign up to receive updates about Live Well Kingston, and learn more about our different working groups that are open for public participation: Age Well, Eat Well, Heal Well, Play Well and Travel Well.

1. Manage depression symptoms

Tabitha Sieloff, LCSW-R is a clinical social worker and owner of Mosaic Community Services in Midtown Kingston.

She says the colloquial “winter blues” manifests with symptoms that are similar to depression.

“People definitely have extra fatigue and difficulty engaging in the activities they would typically enjoy,” she said. “Hygiene can also become an issue. Showering, taking care of household chores. People who might have otherwise well-managed depression can have an increase in these symptoms in the wintertime.”

To start to bust out of the winter blues, she recommends three things:

• Take a Vitamin D supplement
• If you can’t get outside into the sunlight, use a sunlamp (which can cost around $50) to simulate the natural sun
• Exercise, ideally in the morning

“If you’re doing that trifecta in the morning, you can release endorphins that really help break through the depression,” she said. “If you just do one or two of those things, it’s not effective as doing all three.”

Although it’s a little late for this winter, she recommends making a plan for managing the winter blues before next winter.

“I talk to people starting around September with their plan for winter,” she said. “It’s a lot easier to keep it going if you start it before winter hits.”

When to consider therapy

“I usually say that therapy is just one way for people to heal,” Sieloff says. “It’s not the only way. For many people it’s yoga, or religious activities, or reading a lot of self-help books. If your natural supports that are in place aren’t enough, and you’ve tried some things, then you should look out for additional help.”

“Therapy isn’t forever,” she added. “It can be a for a time period to get you through something difficult that your natural supports aren’t enough for. Then you can go on with your life.”

2. Go to free health events and support groups

We recently covered seven websites and organizations that promote and facilitate free health events and support groups in our community.

3. Stick to a sleep routine

“It’s impossible to overstate how important sleep is to good health,” says Dr. Barbara Chatr-Aryamontri, medical director of the Hartman Sleep Center at HealthAlliance Hospital: Mary’s Avenue Campus. “It affects our immune system, hormones, appetite, weight, thinking, energy, concentration, temper, mood — even life expectancy.”

To get good sleep, sticking to a sleep schedule is cited in many articles about beating the winter blues. Some tips for doing that include:

• Setting a consistent bedtime
• Make gradual adjustments to your sleep schedule
• See the morning light, by opening the curtains or having coffee on your porch
• Dim or turn off lights close to bedtime
• Avoid computers, tablets, cellphones and TV an hour before bedtime
• Try to not snooze your alarm
• Have dinner at the same time every night, two or three hours before bedtime

If you can’t stick to a sleep routine and have some form of insurance, it might be a good idea to consider a sleep study – “a noninvasive, overnight exam that lets doctors monitor you while you sleep to see what’s happening in your brain and body.”

“For this, you go to a sleep lab such as ours and sleep overnight at the center or in your own bed,” says Chatr-Aryamontri, who is board certified in pulmonology and sleep medicine.

While you sleep, an EEG monitors your sleep stages and cycles, which finds any sleep disruptions, eye and body movements, heart and breathing rates, and oxygen levels in your blood.

4. Go for a winter hike

Hiking is a popular activity in the Hudson Valley and Catskills in the summer and fall, and some of the more challenging and steep hikes can be inaccessible when there’s snow and slush on the ground. But according to Mike Todd, the creator of Hike the Hudson Valley, there are some advantages to going hiking during the winter.

“If you show up on a nice fall weekend at Mohonk Preserve or Sam’s Point, you can show up at 10:15 in the morning and not be able to get into the parking lot,” he said. “Winter is an easy time of year to find some solitude on the trails. The people who were packed in during the summer and fall are at home watching Netflix.”

Other benefits of winter hiking include not encountering snakes or mosquitoes, and a reduced risk of Lyme disease.

Todd recommends looking for hikes with gentle inclines, to remember that walking in the snow is more taxing than in normal conditions, and to consider additional gear like trekking poles and traction cleats for balance.

“For clothing, you definitely need a jacket, a backpack, and a bunch of layers,” he said. “At some point, you will get hotter and will want to stash your jacket somewhere. Wear thermal underwear under your hiking pants, and maybe a waterproof layer on top of that. It’s better to start off with too many layers than too few.”

Some of Todd’s picks for winter hikes near Kingston include:

• Undercliff/Overcliff trail at Mohonk Preserve
• Poet’s Walk
• Burger Hill
• High Banks Preserve
• Walkway Over the Hudson (the only hike that gets plowed)
• Falling Waters Preserve
• Mills Mansion
• Esopus Meadows

“Go hiking with somebody else when you can,” Todd concludes. “Especially this time of year, the stakes are a little higher if you get lost or slip and get hurt.”

5. Socialize

Five years ago, Kevin Godbey was retiring from IBM and looking for something fun and productive to do. Since then, he’s managed a site called Kingston Happenings, a constantly-updated guide to business and community events in the Kingston area.

The site has generated millions of pageviews, and is an important resource for people who are looking to beat the winter blues with socializing and new experiences.

“It’s sort of a bird’s-eye view of what’s going on in the community,” Godbey said.

The site includes nightlife and entertainment, a section for kids and families, health and fitness classes, and a community meeting calendar.

“A lot of people have different interest areas,” Godbey says. “If it’s music, there are a wide variety of music for a lot of venues, even alcohol free ones, if you’re skittish of the bar scene. If you’re into history, the Maritime Museum has talks and lectures all the time. There’s comedy, art, there’s a little bit of everything. We’ve got more yoga studios than you can shake a stick at. Just ask yourself what you’d like to do and you can find it.”

Godbey said that many local spaces allow for people to socialize at their own pace.

“Many local venues have made an effort to create space for lots of different people,” says Godbey. “You can hang in the corner and watch people go by, or you can mix and mingle. Either way, you can be comfortable.”

He adds that socializing locally can give people a more positive perspective on the world.

“You can be in proximity with people who are active and positive about what they’re doing,” he says. “It gives you a much better perspective than watching tv and hearing bad news and focusing on that. You can see lots of people trying to accomplish something, and talk to people about your commonalities or differences.”

Make healthy choices while you’re out and about

If you take one of Kingston Happenings’ recommendations and find yourself out at a local eatery or bar, you can still make a healthy choice for what to eat! Read our recent blog post on the topic.

The City of Kingston and Ulster County are moving forward with a plan to transfer the CitiBus system to Ulster County and be incorporated into the UCAT system. City bus routes will be similar and UCAT routes outside of the City will not change. There will still be three routes that service most of Kingston. The frequency will increase to every 30 minute for two of the routes and every 45 minute for one route. For the first 6 months, July – December 2019, bus fares will be FREE. After the transition time the cost to ride the bus will stay the same at $1 inside the City, $2 to Port Ewen and $.50 for seniors and persons with disabilities during non-peak hours.

When will the bus merger happen?

On or about July 1, 2019. The County will develop schedules, literature, and outreach brochures to communicate the changes.

Will the current City bus driver’s lose their jobs?

The County agreed to make an offer of employment to full-time bus drivers employed by the City.

How will I be able to find out about routes and schedules?

The City buses will be incorporated into the Ulster County UCAT system. Routes and schedules will be posted on the Ulster County website, posted at bus stops, brochures will be distributed to community organizations, and will be on the UCAT mobile app. If you have a smartphone and the UCAT app, you can see where the buses are, in real time. You will be able to call the Ulster County’s Transportation Information Center (845) 340-3333 during operating hours.

Will all the buses be transferred to UC?

No, a few vehicles will stay with the City. Much of the bus garage and equipment would continue to be owned by the City to maintain other City vehicles.

Will the bus routes stay the same?

No. The routes have been reconfigured to address transit demand and reduce travel time. There will still be three routes with a hub at the Kingston Plaza. The frequency will increase on two of the routes to every 30 minutes and the third route would be every 45 minutes (currently, the CitiBus works on an hourly schedule). For riders outside the immediate transit coverage area (based on their address), Demand-Responsive Transit (DRT) will be available. Users will have to request the service 24 hours or more in advance and be pre-approved based on their address. The DRT service will bring you to a transfer hub where you may have to connect with another bus to reach your final destination. Saturday service will consolidate two routes with a 45 minute frequency. Buses will continue to go into housing complexes to pick up passengers as they currently do.

What is the Demand-Response Transit service?

This service will be for riders outside the immediate transit coverage area. Users will have to request the service 24 hours or more in advance and be pre-approved based on their address. The DRT service will bring you to a transfer hub where you may have to connect with another bus to reach your final destination.

Will paratransit service stay the same?

Ulster County will provide paratransit service in the City of Kingston with the same requirements and level of service as they have been providing for the County.  

Will the hours of operation change?

The hours will stay about the same.

Will the bus consolidation cost the tax payers more money?

No. The tax burden will be lessened because of reconfigured routes and fewer busses running on Saturdays. The City of Kingston will pay Ulster County $112,500.00 the first year and $225,000.00/year for 5 years after. The Citibus has been costing the City of Kingston about $225,000/year.

How can I give the feedback about the new routes?

The County will hold public meetings within the first six months of operation to assess the effectiveness of the new routes and will seek to address any comments received.

What role can the City of Kingston play in our health?

The City of Kingston has a long history of caring about the health and wellness of its citizens, starting with the 1883 establishment of a health department. At the time, the department consisted of six appointed commissioners, a Health Officer and a Sanitary Inspector.

In 2014, former Mayor James Sottile re-affirmed the civic mandate of health and wellness, stating “You are required to keep the health, safety and welfare of 23,000 people in your mind all the time.”

Kingston’s current mayor, Steve Noble, has continued in that tradition, stating in a 2017 speech, “I am well aware of the negative impacts obesity and other chronic illnesses can have on our community… I am committed to bringing together community partners to further our wellness efforts and establish the Live Well Kingston Commission.”

What is Live Well Kingston?

Live Well Kingston was first formed in 2013, and was officially sponsored by the city in 2017. Our mission is to promote the advancement of a healthy and active community by bringing partners and residents together to facilitate policy, environmental and systems changes.

Live Well Kingston consists of five active sub-committees:

Age Well
Eat Well
Heal Well
Play Well
Travel Well

So far in 2018, stakeholders from 38 local organizations have attended over 35 Live Well Kingston sub-committee meetings. The organizations include (not a complete list):

• Government bodies: City of Kingston, Ulster Health Department, The Kingston Land Trust, Kingston City School District
• Healthcare providers: HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley, Institute for Family Health, Stockade Wellness, Rose Women’s Care Center
• Health-related non-profits: Cornell Cooperative Extension, People’s Place, O+ Festival, HealthLinkNY
• Food insecurity organizations: People’s Place, Feed HV Food Rescue Network, Eat Smart NY
• Fitness studios: Innate Movement Parkour, Anahata Yoga, Bodies by Colotti, Mudita Yoga Lab
• Senior groups: Seniors Staying and Servicing in Place, Esopus Senior Group, Yosman Towers & Governor Clinton Management

Getting all of those stakeholders to talk to each other, share resources and partner on projects is a major endeavor, and last year, the Novo Foundation announced that it would fully fund the creation of a part-time position called the Director of Health and Wellness for the City of Kingston.

Enter Emily Flynn, a local graphic designer and longtime bicycle advocate.

“The majority of my time is spent managing Live Well Kingston,” she says. “I also look into the health issues of our city and am a liaison to the community, with groups like the Kingston City School District Health & Wellness Committee, Bringing Agencies Together, Healthy Ulster Council and Seniors Settled and Serving in Place groups.”

Live Well Kingston helped coordinate the free shuttle that transported seniors to and from this free community event in October.

Flynn believes that there are huge costs to our city when safety net programs fall short.

“It will always cost our community in some other way,” she says. “If we can help kids eat healthy when they’re young, they’ll be healthier adults. If they learn how food is grown and how to cook, they’ll be happier, healthier, have less medical issues, work more and take less sick time. If we can coordinate our community to ensure that kids are not hungry and eating healthy food, the benefit to our society is exponential.”

Successes in 2018

In 2018, Live Well Kingston organized a free healing salon event at the Lace Mill and jump-started a Cyber Seniors program to help local seniors gain computer skills. They conducted surveys of local parks, of local senior health, of city employees’ health, and of the number of bicyclists and pedestrians on Broadway.

Flynn said that when local health stakeholders get in a meeting together, it’s easy for partnerships to happen.

Partnerships are needed to bridge the gap between government programs and our community needs.

“At an Eat Well Kingston meeting two groups were able to share resources: a gardener at the GW School Community garden mentioned they had an empty plot and the Hudson Valley Seed organization said they had extra seedlings. Just by being in a room together, these people can say that they have more of this, but need more of that, and they can work together.”

Some other partnerships in the works include a local pre-school visiting with seniors at Yosman Towers for an inter-generational playdate, and the Institute for Family Health collaborating with local seniors to make their online health portal more accessible.

Looking ahead to 2019

Flynn’s role has also included supporting Kingston’s grant writing in the areas of health and wellness, which will continue next year.

“We did an application for a bicycle and pedestrian master plan,” she says. “There are also a couple of transportation projects that I have provided support for. There are more grants we’re going to apply for that will really highlight the different health initiatives in our community.”

Flynn is also building a workplace wellness program for City of Kingston employees, which she hopes will eventually expand into a sixth Live Well Kingston sub-committee: Work Well. A greater emphasis on workplace wellness will contribute to city employee’s quality of life and productivity.

“We’ve brought in a yoga instructor who has taught employees, and we also have started taking a 45-minute walk on Mondays,” she says. “It’s a start of a “Work Well” movement that will meet people where they are.”