FARMINGTON — Nicole Ditata, a program coordinator for Healthy Community Coalition (HCC), presented at the Society of Public Health Education’s 60th annual meeting called “An Invitation to Innovation” held in Philadelphia on Nov. 4 to 6.

The title of her presentation was “A Healthy Community Coalition and a University Health Education Program: Working in Partnership.” Maurice Martin, Ph.D., a community health education professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, was also on hand at the presentation to answer questions.

The community health workforce development project described at the meeting is a three-year project funded by the Bingham Foundation. HCC is partnering with the Community Health Education program at the University of Maine at Farmington to alleviate current and future community health workforce and leadership shortages by collaboratively developing a more tailored community health education curriculum, and by subsequently increasing deployment of a competent workforce in community health coalitions.

A Community Health Workforce Development Board has been created as part of the project to advise on curriculum elements as they relate to coalitions, core competencies and performance standards, internship opportunities and leadership development.

Ditata said, “HCC and UMF have an exciting opportunity to work with groups across the state to ensure that all coalitions have a qualified workforce to improve the health of people in Maine.”

HCC is an affiliate of Franklin Community Health Network. Call 779-2932 or 1-800-525-3136 for more information.