Healthy community forums set for River Valley
RUMFORD – Health advocates want to know what makes a healthy community and how to make it better.
And they don’t restrict healthy to just medical and mental health. They mean everything.
“We want to know the community’s perceptions of the economy, the environment, and the recreational offerings as well as the resources available for physical and mental health,” said Patricia Duguay, River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition coordinator. “We want conversations, narratives from people living in each of the communities.”
That’s why this year’s Community Forums are being held in smaller venues.
On Monday, people are invited to the Mexico Historical Society building on Oxford Street where a comfortable living room may help to bring out people’s ideas. Then, on Tuesday, residents are invited to discuss the same topics in the new meeting room of Ludden Memorial Library on Main Street, Dixfield. Both sessions begin at 6 p.m.
A University of Maine at Farmington community health student, Jennifer Berry, will facilitate each meeting. She is serving as an intern for the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition.
Information gathered from the forums, and from surveys handed out over the past few weeks, will be used to produce a Comprehensive Community Health Assessment. That assessment will then be sent to the state’s Bureau of Health by the end of January. A $10,000 grant from the state agency is funding the report.
The River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition board will use the data to set priorities and projects for the coming year. The assessment is an update of a similar document created in 1999. From that assessment, the healthy communities board completed many projects, including the identification of high lead levels in some homes. The board then launched a program to resolve the problem.
Duguay said questions those attending one of the two sessions will be asked include such things as what are the characteristics of a healthy community, specific examples of people or groups working together to improve the quality of life in the area, what are the top issues that must be addressed, and what kinds of activities would prompt someone to become actively involved.
Comments are no longer available on this story