Heart Safe Community Presentation

Purpose:  To introduce the City Council to a Community Program called Heart Safe

Background:  Staff recently received a presentation regarding the Heart Safe Community.  Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the number one killer in America - Statistic - 400,000 of the 600,000 cardiac related deaths in the United States are a result of SCA.  Heart Safe Community was initiated by Medtronic a decade ago to educate the public on sudden cardiac awareness, CPR, AED, and more. 

Mr. Tim Hoffman will be present to at the work session to talk about Ramsey becoming a Heart Safe Community as well as what the role of the City would be.

Under the strategic Plan, Smart Citizen-focused Government, a "Get Healthy" program is listed as a desirable task to complete in 2015 under Building and expanding community connections.  This proposal has the potential to achieve that goal for the City through an established program, a motivated cadre of volunteers, and the access to grant money.

Approximately 30 to 45 minutes.

The proposal is a volunteer-driven initiative that would rely upon community volunteers to initiate and support the program.  Mr. Hoffman, a Ramsey resident,  is a SCA survivor and a strong advocate for the Heart Safe Community program.  Based upon discussions with the City of Coon Rapids, staff has concerns about the amount of staff time that might be required to sustain the program.  However, if the strong volunteer effort continues the program would be sustainable, as long as the City only plays a minor support role.  If the program proceeds, staff will monitor the staff time during the initial phases of the program and provide reports back to the Council.

City Administrator Kurt Ulrich

Staff is hoping to gage Council's interest in becoming a Heart Safe Community and receiving direction to proceed with the process for designation.