The Kenosha County Division of Health released the following statement regarding Healthy People Kenosha County 2020:
Healthy People Kenosha County 2020 held a Kick-Off event last week, introducing the Transform Wisconsin grant to the community. The event was held at the Kenosha County Human Services Building and was attended by various representatives from the community. Kenosha County is one of 30 communities around the state awarded Transform Wisconsin grants in an effort to create healthier places to live, work and play. $6.6 million will be invested over the next 26 months with the goal of creating healthier communities and reducing preventable chronic diseases. Transform Wisconsin is built on the idea that smoke-free air, fresh fruit and vegetables, and safe places to play should be available to everybody. Seven counties, including Kenosha County, are receiving a full Transformation Grant to promote healthy food systems, physical activity, and tobacco-free living. The goal of the project is to make healthy choices the easy choices. This grant comes to Kenosha at a time when our most recent health rankings place our county at 64 out of 72 counties in the state. The grant is a partnership between Kenosha County Division of Health, Kenosha Unified Schools, the Kenosha YMCA and the Kenosha Racine Walworth Tri County Tobacco Free Coalition. The partnership hopes to engage the community in making changes to promote healthier choices. Harborside Academy environmental science teacher Mary Bohning spoke about leading the Healthy Foods segment of the grant. … Kenosha YMCA Operations Manager, Cindy Altergott presented on the Active Communities portion of the grant. Active Communities are working to create opportunities for physical activities within neighborhoods. … The Kenosha Racine Walworth Tri-County Tobacco Free Coalition’s Joyce Erickson then spoke about working with local landlords to provide information about the benefits of offering smoke free housing. Sixty percent of the air in multi-unit apartments is recycled air, so even if a resident doesn’t smoke in their apartment, the air from another apartment where someone does smoke can enter their non-smoking apartment. This is becoming an increasing concern with the rise of asthma and other respiratory ailments in our community. The project is looking for ways to engage community members and create ideas that could inform policy decisions throughout the community. A mailer will be going out to residents to parts of the community in the next two weeks that will provide an overview of the program and a tear off post card that can be returned to the Division of Health to get more information or to become involved the project.
