Moving the county towards a healthier future requires new partnerships, which is what brought 300 people to the Healthy Jeffco Innovation Summit on Sept. 29 at the Arvada Center.
Attendees included community members, local businesses, elected officials and organizations partnering with the health department in seven Healthy Jeffco coalitions.
"If we learn to listen to the people, we will get to the outcomes," said Lynn Johnson, executive director for Jefferson County Human Services.
Healthy Jeffco is a network of the coalitions working collaboratively to improve community health. The coalitions are active living, food policy, Jeffco Sips Smart that focuses on healthy beverage, health in early childhood, school wellness, preventive care and behavioral health resources and Jeffco Thrives which focuses efforts on economic stability, public safety, education and housing.
A few of Healthy Jeffco's accomplishments in the year include conducting walk audits in communities for safe walking routes and paths, worked with farmers' markets to implement the SNAP program, provided 113 boxes of healthy food to families at various preschools and eight schools received new water refill stations.
Among the keynote speakers at the summit was Nick Macchione, director of San Diego County's Health and Human Services Agency in California who worked on Live Well San Diego in 2010 --; a health strategy and vision campaign similar to Healthy Jeffco.
Jefferson County is making a big impact for the rest of the state with Healthy Jeffco, Macchione said.
"It's neighbors helping neighbors," he said. Great things can happen when health, safety and human services all come together.
Pamela Gould, health planner with Jeffco Public Health and coordinator for Healthy Jeffco, presented some of the campaign's data related to public health.
"There's all kinds of stories in Jefferson County," she said. "Each of the numbers represent real people."
Like everywhere in the world, Gould said, people in Jefferson County also suffer. Although not everything can be fixed, everyone attending the summit can create some sort of change.
To introduce summit attendees to the newest coalition, Jeffco Thrives, four subgroups were formed --; economic stability, public safety, education and housing.
"Everybody should thrive," said Lynn Johnson, executive director for Jefferson County Human Services, adding it's the community that can make change. "Everything in Jeffco can be done with the community, not for the community --; and not for compliance, but for true outcomes."
from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.comhttp://goldentranscript.net/stories/Hundreds-gather-to-discuss-health-in-Jeffco,236600?branding=15
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