Culture Spotlight

New Gloucester Municipal Data Across Sectors for Health (M-DASH) is looking for volunteers!

The Town of New Gloucester and the Maine Council on Aging (MCOA) invite you to participate in an exciting project that we’re joining.  Our first meeting will be September 29, from 2:00 to 3:30 pm at the New Gloucester Public Library.

The project – Municipal Data Across Sectors for Health (M-DASH) – is an innovative approach to collecting, analyzing, and using data specifically for the purpose of supporting municipal actions and investments that support the health and well-being of older community members.

The MCOA will be coordinating this collaboration of municipal leaders, community members, and social services and healthcare partners to develop a data dashboard related to the health and social determinants of health of residents of New Gloucester with a focus on older residents.  Following the creation of the dashboard, the New Gloucester Task Force will collectively analyze the data, evaluate community assets and service gaps, select priority areas for interventions, and develop action steps that can be implemented and measured over time.  

The New Gloucester Task Force will meet monthly in September, October and November of 2022 and most likely every other month in 2023 with individual and small-group meetings, research, and/or data collection happening during the intervening months.  At our first meeting, participants will learn more about the initiative and outcomes of the data from other communities.

We hope you’ll join us to make this project successful and useful – both for New Gloucester and for others around our state.  We know there is and has been a lot of great data work being done in Maine.  This is an opportunity to bring it together to focus on data that will be specifically useful to New Gloucester in making cost effective, sustainable investments to support residents as they age in our community 

If you are interested in participating on this Task Force, please email the Town Planner at townplanner@newgloucester.com Please include a brief statement of why you would like to serve on the Task Force and any particular areas of interest, experience or skills that you feel would be beneficial to the Task Force.  

Thank you,

Natalie Thomsen, New Gloucester Town Planner

from Town of New Gloucester website: newgloucester.com