Health

Our Goal

Health impacts every aspect of people’s lives and their daily activities. Good health of individuals and families helps build stronger communities. Our goal is to lead community-wide efforts to improve the health of children, adults and seniors by focusing on prevention, education and access to health related programs.

Our Strategy

To reach this goal, we have developed the following focus area:

Healthy Choices. Healthy Kids.
Empowering families to choose healthy lifestyles.

Health Facts

• More than 33% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. That’s 25 million kids and teenagers.
• Children with health coverage are better prepared to learn in school and succeed in life.¹
• The number of Americans without health insurance has increased steadily since the beginning of the century, now totaling about 47 million. More than 80% are working families.²
• 8.7 million children live without health insurance – more than the total number enrolled in the first and second grades in U.S. public schools.³

¹Institute of Medicine. From Neurons to Neighborhood: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2000.)
²Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from the March Current Population Survey, 2007 Supplement.
³Compiled by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), University of Minnesota School of Public Health, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey 2007.