In the Headlines

November 2, 2015 - There is progress in the fight to control high blood pressure, a leading factor in heart disease. Monday, the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency joined members of the Rochester Business Alliance to discuss their work over the past five years.

October 23, 2015 - What separates Rochester's approach from other cities fighting childhood lead poisoning is simple: The city decided to start looking for lead in rental homes rather than waiting to act until a child had already been poisoned, the Cleveland Plain Dealer said. The newspaper quoted FLHSA's Chief Strategy Officer, Wade Norwood, and featured the work of the Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning as part of its series on lead poisoning.

October 23, 2015 - Advocates called on the federal government to close gaps in funding of child nutrition programs to ensure that children do not go hungry after school, on weekends and during the summer. FLHSA is part of the Summer Meals Partnership of Rochester.

October 20, 2015 - The Cleveland Plain Dealer, which focused a series of reports on lead poisoning, wrote that Rochester was able to achieve a drop in the percentage of children diagnosed with lead poisoning due to the passage of the city's lead ordinance in 2005. There was a moral, scientific and community imperative for the legislation, said Wade Norwood, FLHSA's chief strategy officer and a former city councilman.

October 7, 2015 - Dozens of parents, students, teachers, and volunteers from Rochester City School #19 took part in the 15th Annual International Walk to School Day to raise awareness for safer walking routes to school, and to promote the importance of exercise.

October 7, 2015 - A recent Healthi Kids Walkability report says some of the safety challenges to kids walking to schools are that there's not enough crossing guards, crosswalks, too many damaged sidewalks and concerns about speeding motorists.

October 7, 2015 - Healthi Kids program manager Dina Faticone said in the past, more than half of children walked to school, whereas today only about 14 percent walk and she called on the community to reduce barriers to walking.

September 24, 2015 - How do you get people in the city's poorest neighborhoods to get out and exercise? Organizations that work for that goal shared their projects with others at Rochester’s inaugural Urban Health Summit, which was co

September 18, 2015 - Healthi Kids set up a pop up park in a parking lot outside of Rundel Memorial Library Sept. 18 for Park(ing) Day. Dina Faticone, program manager for Healthi Kids, said using space in a smarter way doesn't require a lot of money, but instead a lot of creativity.

September 17, 2015 - The Democrat and Chronicle featured the concept of Parking Day as an effort to temporarily turn wasted public spaces into urban parks. It noted that Healthi Kids is setting up a pop

September 9, 2015 - Dina Faticone, program manager for Healthi Kids, said that like reading, writing and arithmetic, recess is a key part of learning. "We really see recess as an important part of the day in conjunction with physical education, so that kids are getting the recommended amount of physical activity per day that can help improve academic performance," she said.

September 9, 2015 - Dr. Thomas Mahoney, chief medical officer of Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, said that although a data breach took place at one of the area's largest health insurers, the hackers most likely were targeting information they could use to criminally obtain money or false identities, rather than targeting private medical information.