Town Administrator Mel Kleckner and Health Commissioner Dr. Swannie Jett are pleased to announce that the Brookline Department of Public Health was recognized by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).
Brookline earned an honorable mention in NACCHO’s Innovative Practice Awards, which recognizes local health departments and the programs that they developed in response to the CoViD-19 pandemic. Departments were recognized for demonstrating effective community partnerships and collaboration, adaptability, program resilience and remarkable innovation.
In total, 48 local health departments were recognized, including eight gold awardees, five silver, 20 bronze and 15 honorable mentions.
Since the CoViD-19 pandemic began, the Town of Brookline has worked to ensure the safety of the community through the implementation of weekly CoViD-19 updates, a dedicated CoViD-19 news website, virtual town hall meetings, efforts to limit large gatherings and an eviction moratorium.
Additionally, Brookline was one of the first towns in the U.S. to put in place contact tracing efforts and mandatory face-coverings requirements in public. To normalize mask-wearing, the department invested in the communication of the mandate through posters, advertisements and social media campaigns.
“I am so pleased that our town was recognized by NACCHO and I am so grateful for everyone who has worked tirelessly over the past 15 months to keep our residents safe amid the largest public health crisis in a century,” said Commissioner Jett. “I would especially like to commend all of our front line workers, first responders and emergency management team, as well as our environmental health staff, school nurses and Medical Reserve Corps volunteers who stepped away from their normal jobs to become contact tracers during the height of the pandemic.”
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About NACCHO
The National Association of Country and City Health Officials was founded in 1965 and represents the nearly 3,000 local governmental health departments in the U.S. The goal of NACCHO is to improve the public’s health while adhering to a set of core values, including equity, excellence, participation, respect, integrity, leadership and science and innovation. They also seek to recognize departments that work every day to protect and promote the health and well-being of the people in their communities.
To learn more, please visit here.
