July 24, 2012

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Healthiest Manitowoc County Receives $460,000 Community Grant​

to create a healthier place to live, work and play

(Manitowoc County, WI) – Healthiest Manitowoc County announced today that it was awarded a Transform Wisconsin grant to spearhead initiatives that will help Manitowoc County residents lead a healthier, more active lifestyle. The grant will invest in promoting physical activity, healthy food systems, and smoke-free living over the next two-and-a-half years.



“This is an exciting time for Manitowoc County.  We have been working hard to improve people’s health and with this unprecedented opportunity, we can elevate our work to do more and to reach more people in our community,” stated Marty Schaller, Executive Director of Northeastern  WI Area Health Education Center and grant fiscal agent.

Manitowoc 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. Six counties, including Manitowoc County, are receiving a Transformation grant to promote healthy food systems, physical activity, and tobacco-free living. 



“Our goal is to transform our community by making healthy choices the easy choice,” said Amy Wergin, Manitowoc County Health Department Nurse

Manager.  “We need to provide kids with a safe place to walk or play and have healthy and affordable foods available for everyone.”  

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The grant comes at a time when Manitowoc County was ranked 41 out of 72 counties in health outcomes in the latest state health rankings from the UW Population Health Institute.  “We know we are better than that,” explained Steve Smith, CEO Manitowoc-Two Rivers Y and Healthiest Manitowoc County 2020 chair. “Our 17% poverty rate for children and our ranking is unacceptable. This grant will have a positive effect on our community by allowing Healthiest Manitowoc County to put real resources behind the hard work already started.”
 

Besides improving the health of the community, another goal of the grant is collaboration.  Healthiest Manitowoc County and its health improvement coalitions have generated many partnerships already.  Coalition members understand the importance of teamwork to ensure any funding and time utilized is used efficiently and effectively. It is not the intent of the group to duplicate efforts but to bring people together, work together and make a greater impact in the citizens of this county.  “Prevention efforts are the key to improving the overall health of Manitowoc County citizens,” said Faye Malek, Family Living Coordinator, UW-Extension.  “Not only will people lead healthier lives, we’ll save millions of dollars in health care costs to treat preventable diseases like cancer and heart disease.” 

Everyone is part of the solution. The grant funders made collaboration a priority -  even having community members vote for the project to show their support. Healthiest Manitowoc County received over 400 votes.  “We truly appreciated the community support that helped us  get the grant and will need everyone’s continued support to ensure the success of the initiatives. This grant isn’t just about implementing new programs and policies, it is about empowering everyone to get involved and take action,” explained Julie Reimer, Healthiest Manitowoc County Coalition for Activity and Nutrition.

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The Transform Wisconsin project will directly reach about half the state’s population -- over 2.6 million residents. All across the state, communities will be building on local efforts to improve health by empowering individuals to make healthier choices and preventing chronic disease.  Transform Wisconsin grants are administered by the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Prevention Services and funded by a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grant through the Prevention and Public Health Fund. 
For more information on Transform Wisconsin grants and to sign up to volunteer for this project, please visit www.transformwi.com.  

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April 3, 2012



Manitowoc County among Wisconsin’s Least Healthy Counties

 Manitowoc County residents are among the least healthy in Wisconsin, according to the 2012 County Health Rankings released today by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The County Health Rankings rank the overall health of nearly every county in all 50 states using a standard way to measure how healthy people are and how long they live. This year’s Rankings include several new measures, such as how many fast food restaurants are in a county and levels of physical inactivity among residents. Graphs illustrating premature death trends over 10 years are also new.
 

Wisconsin’s five healthiest counties are St. Croix, Ozaukee, Taylor, Iowa, and Vernon. The five counties in the poorest health are Menominee, Marquette, Milwaukee, Adams, and Jackson. The least healthy counties are primarily located in rural areas of central and northern Wisconsin with the exception of Milwaukee County, the state’s most urban county, in the southeast.

“The Rankings remind us that there is a lot more to health than health care alone. Where we live, learn, work, and play matters to our health,” says Dr. Patrick Remington, associate dean for public health at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. “This annual county health check-up is bringing local leaders together to identify where they are doing well and where they should take action to get better.”
 

Manitowoc County ranks in the bottom half of Wisconsin counties for health factors (49) and health outcomes (41).
Manitowoc County ranks in the bottom half for health behaviors (58), social and economic factors (38), and physical environment (65). Manitowoc ranks in the top quartile of counties for clinical care (18). “In Manitowoc we have partnered with the community to develop a health improvement plan, Healthiest Manitowoc County, to address some of the barriers to health highlighted in our ranking, especially excessive alcohol use, smoking, and obesity,” says James Blaha, Manitowoc County health officer.
 

You can find more information on the Manitowoc County Health Department website,
www.manitowochealthdept.info or visit www.countyhealthrankings.org.