In 1992, the Island Medical Center (IMC) in Stonington, Maine, initiated the Healthy Island Project (HIP) to address local health and development issues. The approach of HIP is based on the "Healthy Communities" model. Developed by the World Health Organization in 1986, the basic premises of the model are to have residents participate in identifying needs in the community, advocate a broad definition of health (including social, emotional, spiritual and physical needs); and develop programs that are needed and can be sustained by residents.

The mission of the HIP is to "function as a catalyst to develop needed programs, to empower residents to increase control over personal and community health and to collaborate with other organizations to improve the health of the community".

The Health Island Project currently has over 50 active volunteers and is part of collaborative efforts with many local and statewide community organizations. Locally, they collaborate with the elementary and high schools, churches, businesses, day-care providers and medical providers.

In the larger arena, they count as partners Hancock County Cooperative Extension, the "Parents Are Teachers, Too" program in Ellsworth, Maine, the Maine state Bureau of Health, the "Communities for Children" program (since 1997) and Blue Hill Memorial Hospital. In January 2001, the HIP model was selected by Blue Hill Memorial Hospital to be replicated throughout the Blue Hill peninsula.

In the first year of HIP, focus groups were conducted with different sectors of the community including churches, schools, medical, business owners and parents. The results of the focus groups showed that work was needed in the following areas: healthy families, recreational opportunities, child abuse and neglect, positive role models, substance abuse, physical fitness, nutrition, educational deficits, learning disabilities and self-esteem, hope, vision and opportunity.

In response to the focus group results, HIP developed activities ranging from traditional health promotion to long-term prevention strategies. Some of the most successful programs include:

HIP is currently working on developing a youth task force. Having found a lack of youth representation in the development and governance of programs, HIP is working with the schools, churches and the medical community to create a group of young people to participate in the organization.

Current funding sources include the Pentagoet Foundation ($65,000); the towns of Deer Isle and Stonington ($3,500); the tobacco settlement funds ($50,000); the Agnes M. Lindsay Trust ($5,000); the Davis Family Foundation ($5,000); the Island Medical Center ($10,000); the Maine Women’s Fund ($3,500); and the Maine Community Foundation ($5,000). The Bingham Program has been the primary funder of HIP since it’s beginning, with a funding commitment of approximately $300,000 stretched over a 7-year period.

Contact Stonington C4C: