According to the second of a two-part forum last Thursday night at Bass Lake, a county’s health ranking can impact many different areas– one of which is industrial attraction. State Representative Nancy Dembowski said that “quality of life” is one of the issues that arises when industry considers Starke County, because being ranked next-to-lowest in the state’s health ranking is definitely not a postive.
At the forum Thursday night, Dembowski pointed out a number of areas to work on, as the assembled members separated into groups.
“The forum Thursday night chose several narrowly-defined issues in which they can focus,” said Dembowski. “Things that can be readily achievable in a short time frame. Oftentimes you get some lofty goal that a group’s working on that would take years, and it dissipates and nothing really happens. We’re looking for achievable goals.”
The four areas Dembowski recommended for improval include helping citizens with job-readiness skills, adult healthy living initiatives, preschool opportunities for all young children, and healthy kids initiatives.
For more information, or to become involved, you can call Sarah Hoshaw at (574) 307-7673 ext. 4752, or email shoshaw@healthlincchc.org.
