Central Oklahoma Turning Point

What makes a community healthy? What partners must be engaged and held accountable for a community’s health? What will it take to catalyze a movement around a new framework for good health in California?

These imperative questions are addressed in, Good Health Counts: A 21st Century Approach to Health and Community for California. The report, prepared by Prevention Institute with funding from The California Endowment, helps make the connection between factors in the environment - including equitable opportunities, strong social ties, the ability to buy healthy foods, perceptions of safety to walk or play in the park, and affordable, quality medical services - and their impact on health. Good Health Counts synthesizes findings from nearly 100 community report cards and indicator reports from throughout the country and broadens understanding of all the elements that contribute to community health.

The report, prepared by Prevention Institute with funding from The California Endowment, delineates various sectors that make decisions daily that impact health and should be engaged in improving community conditions. It will help build capacity among key leaders to take environmental approaches to improving health and offers a number of tools that can be adapted based on specific communities’ needs to assess and address major barriers to good health.

The report is available free of cost at: http://preventioninstitute.org/documents/GoodHealthCounts_Final.pdf. For more information please contact Janani Srikantharajah at Janani@preventioninstitute.org or (510) 444-7738.

Prevention Institute is a national non-profit center committed to improving community health and well being by building momentum for effective primary prevention. For more information on Prevention Institute, please visit: www.preventioninstitute.org.