County health leaders want more
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on October 8, 2014 1:46 PM
There already exists a countywide campaign to get Wayne County residents eating healthier and more physically active.
GoWayneGo was launched last year to motivate the community to better health.
But it is time to add to the menu of choices and take it to the next level, said officials who attended a community meeting on the subject Thursday.
"GoWayneGo exists, but now we need to Grow, Wayne, Grow," said Jo Heidenreich, development director of the Boys & Girls Club, during an all-day community dialogue hosted by the Healthy Wayne Task Force at Lane Tree Golf Club.
More than 60 representatives from area agencies came together to brainstorm ways to move the county into a better direction healthwise.
Wayne was one of six counties across the country chosen by NACo, the National Association of Counties, to hold World Cafe-style community dialogues about efforts to improve the overall health of residents.
"We're not here to tell them what they have to do. It's really about us helping them identify what they want to do today," said Maeghan Gilmore, NACo program director. "It's all a part of what they're already doing, getting people to come together with ideas, collectively thinking about how we're going to do this."
The Goldsboro stop was the fifth of the six the group will make in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Ava Crawford, public health education and promotion supervisor with the county Health Department, said a "lot of wonderful things" came out of the meetings breakout sessions. The common thread was discussing ownership of the issue, along with having a shared vision and commitment, she said.
Another topic was diversity, bringing people of different backgrounds and ages to the table, she said. Creating partnerships was also deemed crucial. Getting churches involved and making sure that every part of the county is included in the effort will be vital to any effort's success, it was agreed.
"Wayne County, you've got a great many resources and you have a blueprint and a template going forward," Ms. Walker said.
Health Director Davin Madden said the area has had a good collaborative record but there is still work to be done.
"Sometimes it seems like we keep going back over and over. A lot of this has been talked about before. It feels like we're rehashing," he said, adding, "A rocking horse does a lot of moving but it doesn't get anywhere. One thing we don't want to do is turn ourselves into a rocking horse mentality."
Madden said the day provided some valuable information to evaluate and look to the future.
"We have a short life and we don't want to live that short life with health challenges," he said. "We have really got to knuckle down and figure out how to move the needle. Right now, we're moving the needle in the wrong direction."