Eat right, Exercise. Do what the doctor says.

Is that your personal plan for getting and staying healthy? How successful are you at following your plan?

Our community also has a plan for getting and staying healthy and, fortunately for all of us, "Our Community Roadmap to Health" offers more than rules. Through the efforts of the Health Action Partnership, a coalition of some 60 agencies and organizations led by the Jefferson County Department of Health, the Roadmap has become a blueprint for changes that will help us all achieve good health for ourselves and for our community.

In developing the Roadmap, JCDH first asked citizens to describe the characteristics of a healthy community for all who live, work and play here. They listened as:

• a teacher expressed concern for children who don’t know the basics of nutrition when they arrive in school
• a health fair volunteer emphasized the importance of identifying problems at a screening
• a young adult called for parks and paths where people can get outside and walk.

“We decided to focus our efforts in four strategic areas – healthy lifestyles, livable communities, access to care and public policy,” explained Dr. Michael Fleenor, Jefferson County Health Officer. “Then we asked for help from community organizations, including the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, that share our goal of improving community health by putting into practice what citizens say they want.”

The Health Action Partnership is already achieving results we can be proud of. A few examples include:

• Fighting childhood obesity: The Jefferson County Childhood Obesity Task Force, chaired by Jones Valley Urban Farm, recently won the U.S. Surgeon General’s Community Champion Award for its efforts to help kids stay active, encourage kids’ healthy eating habits and promote healthy choices. As one example, the task force encourages schools to include nutrition and physical activity lessons in their lessons and visit local gardens to learn about healthy nutrition and cooking.
• Reducing litter: A coalition of groups working to improve environmental quality is targeting youth with an education and marketing effort, since people ages 16-24 are shown to be the most frequent litterers. The coalition also is working with the court system on alternative sentencing for prisoners on probation, such as cleaning clean up litter from the roadside.
• Encouraging active lifestyles: JCDH, the YMCA and the Community Foundation brought in Dan Burden of Walkable Communities, who shared his national perspective on ways to build on our strengths. Burden praised the wide streets and human-sized streetscapes that date back to trolley-car days, seeing these as the perfect ingredients for making our community friendlier for walkers and cyclists.

As leader for the public policy efforts of the Health Action Partnership, the Community Foundation continues to look for ways to educate and advocate for positive changes, such as designing streets in ways that promote active lifestyles.

First-time collaboration focuses on a single community
JCDH and the Community Foundation also are working together on a pilot project to focus $80,000 in Health Action Partnership grants on a single part of our community, the Eastern area of Birmingham, and, more particularly, the communities of East Lake and Roebuck.

As a result of this grant funding, we will see:

• Children at area day care centers enjoying baskets of fresh food
• School children exploring their natural world at Ruffner Mountain Nature Center
• Fitness specialists and volunteers leading community walking groups
• Information about healthy living distributed at a local farmers market
• Boost to local businesses through a study of potential for a local public market

“We asked local agencies to focus on the end results that will create a safer and healthier community and to join us as leaders in making this happen,” Fleenor said.

Look for the announcement of the first grants awarded in the eastern area of Birmingham and more about the nonprofit organizations that are working together on this multi-faceted effort. In the meantime, join us as we work together to improve our own health and that of our community, using "Our Community Roadmap to Health" as a blueprint for collective action.