The Heart Healthy Vermonter Program

The Vermont Department of Health has developed a heart disease prevention program which has three major components: community organization and education, professional education, and media development. At the community level both individual lifestyle factors and environmental concerns are addressed through a series of projects. The state health department makes small grants available to community agencies for the purpose of implementing the program at the local level. Evaluation consists of regular monitoring of all program components to determine if each continues to meet objectives. This paper describes funding, methods, and experience in the development and implementation of this program.