Community & Health Education

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The mission of community and health education is to educate, facilitate, advocate and collaborate to empower the Edgecombe County community to make healthy choices for a healthy lifestyle.


Health Educators present health data to civic groups, churches, businesses and schools through lectures and training sessions. These educators work to assess the needs of the county and address them with education and intervention; and convey the overall goal of public health PREVENTION. 
 
ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Communication of health information
  • Assessment & data collection
  • Program planning & evaluation
  • Resource development & grant writing
  • Counseling & consultation
  • Media facilitation
  • Marketing
  • Web design
  • Precepting students
  • Liaison to task force & coalitions

CURRENT PROGRAMS

Health Promotion

  • The goal of Health Promotion is to implement policy and environmental changes focusing in the area of eating smart, moving more, and smoking prevention. Policies like the stairwell initiative, marking off walking area with signage, and public awareness messages are successes in Health Promotion. Health Promotion collaborates with schools, churches, townships, and organizations with recommendations or any implementation of an environmental or policy change.
  • The concepts of policy and environmental change intervention can be confusing to public health professionals as well as the lay public. The following definitions were based on the literature dealing with policy and environmental changes and from the practical experience of experts in the field.
    • Policy Change describes changes to laws, regulations, and formal and informal rules and practice standards. Policy change in this context includes promoting both written and unwritten policies, practices and incentives that provide new or enhanced support for health behaviors and lead to changes in community and societal norms. Policy change can be different levels, such as at the organizational level (single worksite), the community level (entire school system), or at the society level (state legislation).
    • Environmental Change describes changes to physical environments that provide new or enhanced support for health behaviors. In promoting physical activity and healthy eating, environmental changes would include facility and environment changes that provide new or enhanced support for physical activity and healthy eating habits. (e.g. sidewalks, trails, salad bars, pedestrian crosswalks, and farmer markets).
  • A Health Educator is available to assist churches, businesses and other local groups to promote healthy lifestyles. To schedule an appointment or a health presentation, please call 252-641-7511.

HIV NTS (Non-Traditional Counseling, Testing and Referral Site) Program  

  • The North Carolina Non-Traditional Counseling, Testing and Referral Sites (NTS)* program addresses barriers to HIV/STD testing by collaborating with community-based organizations to offer expanded HIV/STD services outside of the traditional public health setting. 
  • NTS projects provide visible alternative HIV/STD services in easily accessible community settings (homeless shelters, substance abuse centers, nightclubs, public housing developments, detention centers and universities) during non-traditional hours (evenings, nights and weekends.) Services offered include: 
    • HIV prevention counseling and testing,
    • Syphilis screenings,
    • STD examinations and treatment,
    • Blood pressure, TB and pregnancy screenings.
    • Information provided by NCPH
  • The Edgecombe County Health Department NTS program works with the Edgecombe County Detention Center and Jail Annex to provide HIV & Syphilis testing, counseling and education to inmates who volunteer to be tested. We also offer walk-in HIV & Syphilis Testing on Thursday evenings at the health department from 5-7pm.
  • To schedule a community education session or to set up a HIV screening, please call 252-641-7511.

Edgecombe Breast Health Initiative

The Edgecombe County Health Department received funding from The NC Triangle Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to address the educational and mammogram needs of underinsured and uninsured women in Edgecombe County. For more information please call, 252-641-7511. 

The Edgecombe Breast Health Initiative is a collaborative effort between the Edgecombe County Health Department, Heritage Hospital, Tarboro Women’s Center, Tarboro Clinic, Macclesfield Health Care Center, and Eastern Radiology. Our initiative provides culturally sensitive prevention and early detection education, baseline/screening mammograms, and advanced screening to underinsured and uninsured women in Edgecombe County, who are high-risk, symptomatic, and/or have a personal or family history of breast cancer. It is the vision of the Edgecombe Breast Health Initiative to increase awareness of breast health,  and increase the number of women receiving clinical breast exams and mammograms.

Breast Health Education sessions are available upon request. To schedule a community education session call 252-641-7511. To find out if you are eligible to receive a free mammogram, please call 252-641-7511.

ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

  • Family Planning Classes
  • Smoking Cessation Classes
  • Nutrition & Physical Activity
  • Hand-washing/Hygiene
  • Safety: infant safety, child safety seat use, seasonal safety
  • Public Health/Public Health Careers
  • Community Outreach through presentations, Health Fairs, and expos
For more information on Health Education services, please call
252-641-7511

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