It's just a little grant, but Health Department Director Bruce Dixon thinks the $40,000 Allegheny County received to participate in a health-improving program called ACHIEVE can be made to go a long way.

"We always like to start small," he said Thursday, after his department announced receipt of the grant. "Then after we can show the benefit of our programs we can go to other people and seek support for continuation of the activity and expansion of the activity."

The county is one of 40 communities selected nationwide to receive the grants made by the National Association of County and City Health Officials. They are meant to be used to build local collaborations to conduct programs that will help prevent chronic diseases and related health-risk factors.

Supported by the Healthy Communities Program of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ACHIEVE stands for Action Communities for Health, Innovation and Environmental Change.

The grant recipients were chosen in a competitive review by several national associations, including the health officials group.

"It's always hard to say what attracts [attention], but the fact that we have a stable population where we can make change and measure the results over a period of time is always a good selling point for grants in our county," Dr. Dixon said. "We don't have a large transient population."

The local program will be implemented in Oakland through a collaboration of the Health Department, the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and Oakland Neighborhood Partnership Program.

That site was chosen, Dr. Dixon said, "simply because we work with the Oakland Neighborhood Partnership, our offices are there, there is that group of community people, and there was some interest on the part of some people at the University of Pittsburgh."

The Oakland partnership itself is a collaboration of such neighborhood groups as People's Oakland, Oakland Business Improvement District and Community Health Services.

According to the announcement, the local programs will try to improve health disparities stemming from poor nutrition. Designed to improve people's awareness of and access to healthy food, programs being considered include converting abandoned lots into community gardens and getting more local agricultural products to grocers and restaurants.

Such products are "fresher, healthier and help the economy locally, which is one of the things we like to do," Dr. Dixon said.

Other potential projects include educational campaigns that focus on buying and preparing healthy food on a limited budget.

"We know some of the biggest health risks are poor nutrition, obesity, not getting enough exercise," the county health director added. "This gives us some ways to encourage the community to do things to change their lifestyles and health outcomes."

The grant is broken down into $15,000 for use in training and development of its community plan in the first year and the balance to implement the plan the following two years.

Other groups that judged the grant applications included National Association of Chronic Disease Directors; National Recreation and Park Association; and YMCA of the USA.

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