5-year-old Healthiest State Iowa rolls out new ‘Healthy Hometown’ tool
With a renewed goal to create a groundswell of better health in Iowa communities, Healthiest State Iowa officials announced a new program — Healthy Hometown — that will provide communities of all sizes with online tools to customize local health and wellness initiatives.
The announcement came Tuesday as Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds helped recognize leaders and communities that have taken the program through its initial five years during a “Bringing It Home” event held at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny.
Healthiest State Iowa was launched in 2011 after Branstad was approached by three Greater Des Moines leaders — John Forsyth, Ric Jurgens and Doug Reichardt — with the idea for a program to make Iowa the healthiest state in the nation by 2016.
The initiative — which encourages multiple avenues for Iowans to make healthier lifestyle choices — is an effort to address the growing obesity epidemic that’s both a state and national cause for skyrocketing rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease that in turn are driving health care cost increases.
“Becoming No. 1 we all knew was going to be a stretch,” said Laura Jackson, board president of Healthiest State Iowa. In the past five years Iowa has moved from 19th-healthiest in the nation to 14th in 2015, as measured by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. “However, we have done amazing work. As a state we have meaningfully improved our overall raw score, which was not easy to do.”
The new Healthy Hometown program will enable entire communities, or even individual workplaces or neighborhoods, to make sustainable changes at the local level, Jackson said. The program provides an online assessment that communities can use as a starting point for determining needed areas for improvement.
“What sets Healthy Hometown apart is the ability for communities to define themselves,” she said. “Our goal is to create a groundswell of ‘healthy’ amongst Iowans. If a neighborhood, workplace or county wanted to get involved, they’re empowered to do so.”
In addition to the online tool, Healthiest State Iowa plans to roll out two more options in January to help communities put a plan in place for either a specific project or a complete community transformation.
During Tuesday’s event, 16 Iowa communities were recognized for their participation as founding members of the new Healthy Hometown program. Working under the “Blue Zones” model that’s now being retired by Healthiest State, the communities carried out health and wellness improvement initiatives that ranged from additional sidewalks to encourage walking to developing community garden programs and making healthier foods more accessible in local grocery stores and school cafeterias.
Healthiest State Iowa also announced a new executive committee, made up largely of Greater Des Moines leaders, which will serve as an umbrella for the organization’s functions. The organization will continue to be led by a board of directors chaired by Jackson. The new structure will allow for “broader leadership, easier collaboration and resource sharing between the public, private and nonprofit sectors,” said HSI’s executive director, Jami Haberl.
The new cabinet positions and their chairs are:
Marketing: David Chivers, Register Media; Greg Edwards, Catch Des Moines.
Community Health Improvement: Mary Lawyer, Wellmark Inc.; Dr. Yogi Shah, Broadlawns Medical Center.
Performance: David Lind, Heartland Health Research Institute; Meg Schneider, Greater Des Moines Partnership.
Strategic Statewide Alliances: Mike Ralston, Iowa Association of Business and Industry; Jeff Pomeranz, city of Cedar Rapids.
Development: Jeff Russell, Delta Dental of Iowa.
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