Media Release

For: Immediate Release
Date: January 15, 2008

Health Department Presents Community Partnership Award To Bert Yaffe, Leader of NECON

Today the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) presented Bert Yaffe, founder and leader of the New England Coalition For Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (NECON) with a Community Partnership Award. HEALTH’s Community Partnership Award is presented to individuals and groups who engage in exceptional community efforts that support the mission of the Health Department.

NECON, a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization, was established in 1984 with working groups and health-examining task forces whose members represented multiple disciplines from all six New England states. Today, NECON is a coalition of the New England state health departments, the region's schools of public health, and federal health agencies led by Region I of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, as well as medical societies, legislators, and representatives from industry, labor, and voluntary associations.  Its mission is to serve as an instrument for the development and enhancement of disease prevention and health promotion public policies in New England.

NECON and Bert Yaffe as its leader, has been a key partner of HEALTH for over twenty years. NECON has been a consistent and visible advocate for health promotion and disease prevention in all six of the New England states. The Coalition has fostered networking and collaboration between the New England states on a wide variety of public health challenges. NECON has kept public health issues on the agenda of the New England Governors’ Conference on an annual basis—including twenty-five annual conferences and more than ten major reports and proceedings. Rhode Island and the other New England states have been very fortunate to have such a strong voluntary voice for public health improvement in the region.