January Quarterly Community Health Meeting Recap
To ring in the New Year, the Coalition for a Healthier Frederick County (Healthier Frederick) held their first Quarterly Community Health meeting on January 14. To set the tone for a bright year ahead, the meeting kicked off with participants sharing what their “word of the year” is. Responses included hope, resilience, fun, slow, challenge, and more.
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Healthier Frederick Updates
Malcolm Furgol, Healthier Frederick’s Executive Director, shared our 2025-2026 short-term goals guided by our Health Equity Framework, which launched in late 2025. These goals involve:
Partnerships: Recruit at least five (5) new partners representing underrepresented communities or non-health sectors to participate in LHIP Workgroups.
Community Voice: Conduct one community dialogue or listening session to gather resident-identified priorities for addressing root causes of health inequity.
Data Use: Hold at least two (2) Coalition-wide sessions that include structured review of disaggregated local health data to identify equity gaps
Shared Measurement: Finalize a core set of at least five (5) equity indicators aligned with LHIP priorities from the group’s logic models.
You can learn more about our Health Equity Framework at https://healthierfrederick.org/about/what-we-do.
Healthier Frederick was proud to share that in 2025, we had a total of 402 volunteers work with us to close out the 2022-2025 Local Health Improvement Process (LHIP) cycle and launch the 2025-2028 cycle. Volunteers include our Workgroup members, board members, and student interns. In all, our volunteers contributed 4,381 hours to supporting our mission.
Frederick County Health Department Updates
Rissah Watkins, Director of the Office of Planning, Assessment, and Communication at the Frederick County Health Department (FCHD), most notably shared that according to the Maryland Respiratory Illness Dashboard, the flu is on the rise in our area. She urged participants to wash their hands, stay home if they’re sick, and get vaccinated if you haven’t already to keep the flu from spreading even more.
In more exciting news from the FCHD, On December 29, Maryland announced that they had received the award for the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. This is a five-year program to strengthen and modernize health care in rural communities. Learn more at bit.ly/4smkOTC. The FCHD will be the local lead for this program.
Affordable Housing Workgroup Updates
The Affordable Housing Workgroup is addressing the lack of affordable housing in Frederick County in partnership with the Frederick Housing Solutions Task Force. Ann Ryan, leadership team member, shared how their various subcommittees; Development, Community Engagement, Policy and Advocacy, Supportive Services, and Landlord Engagement and Locator Assistance, are collaborating with houses of worship to eventually develop deeply affordable housing options on underused land. Another current initiative is exploring home sharing programs within the City of Frederick, especially for our seniors. Ann emphasized that seniors receiving average social security benefits have zero rental options in their price range in Frederick County.
Mental Health Workgroup Updates
Brooke DeSantis, Mental Health Workgroup Lead and Founder of Love for Lochlin, was happy to share that the Workgroup recently partnered with Frederick Health to coordinate an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy training scholarship process. The EMDR training is hosted by Trauma Specialists Training Institute. Workgroup members served on a Scholarship Review Committee, which prioritized applicants accepting Medicare/Medicaid, offer bilingual services, and serve underserved areas. Six local clinicians were awarded the scholarship, increasing trauma informed treatment capacity in our community.
An upcoming storytelling initiative to combat stigma around mental health will be launched in the upcoming months. The community will have the opportunity to share their stories of navigating mental health challenges and healing in hopes to frame mental health conversations in a more positive light.
Affordable Healthy Food Updates
Summer McClellan, Healthier Frederick’s Program Manager, presented on behalf of Alysia Feuer, Executive Director of Farm to School Frederick and Affordable Healthy Food Workgroup Lead. Summer shared how the Workgroup is focusing their efforts on addressing school food with guidance from the Chef Ann Foundation’s School Food Advocacy Toolkit. Their first step is to understand the school food system, including how decisions are made, nutritional recommendations for children/young adults, and what actually goes on in the cafeteria. To supplement these efforts, they’re looking to gauge interest in addressing and level of satisfaction with school food by connecting with FCPS PTAs, Principals, and the community.
Institutional and Systemic Racism Workgroup Updates
Healthier Frederick is proud to support the leadership of the Black Health Equity Coalition (BHEC) in their critical work to address institutional and systemic racism in Frederick County. While Healthier Frederick houses the LHIP, BHEC leads this work. Danielle Haskin, BHEC Board Member, shared that they are connecting with Frederick Health Hospital’s Obstetrics and Maternal Child Health leadership to explore obstetric racism measures, such as humility throughout the birthing journey. The Workgroup was excited to share they have successfully launched their Certified Breastfeeding Specialist Training with Bloom Collective in Baltimore.
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