The city of Mount Vernon is among 21 communities to be honored with the Healthy Ohio-Healthy Community Award. The awards are given annually by the Ohio Department of Health’s (ODH) Bureau of Healthy Ohio. There are four levels of awards: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Mount Vernon received a silver award. This was the first time the city has been nominated for a Healthy Community award.
The Knox County Health Department submitted the award application in recognition of several developments to improve area residents’ health. “While there’s still much more to do, we felt there were a lot of good things that have been done that show we are moving in the right direction,” said Health Commissioner Julie Miller. “This includes a master plan for walking and biking, the availability of farmers markets and community gardens, a maintained park system, free tobacco cessation classes and the work of the Community Health Partnership.”
Healthy Ohio-Healthy Community awards recognize a community’s achievements in developing and implementing health-related policies, and providing healthy community environments. The award recognizes a community’s efforts in enabling employees, residents and visitors to make healthy choices including participating in physical activity, eating good, nutritious foods and avoiding tobacco.
The Mount Vernon application acknowledged several health-related initiatives including the school program Crunch Out Obesity, a fitness challenge by the prosecutor’s office, the Knox Substance Abuse Action Team which fights prescription drug abuse, Project Lifesaver, the Suicide Prevention Coalition and the mobile urgent trauma team, a mental health crisis team for children.
Mount Vernon Mayor Rickard K. Mavis said the award was “a reflection of many different groups working together for the benefit of all.” He cited the sidewalk extension on Mount Vernon Avenue and the upkeep of the various park spaces as good examples of healthy initiatives. “We are appreciative of the health department for submitting the application. Working together we have been able to make our city a better place to live.”
ODH will present the Healthy Ohio-Healthy Community awards at the Ohio Society for Public Health Education Health Educators’ Institute conference on Oct. 24 at the Salt Fork State Park Resort and Conference Center in Cambridge.
The 2013 Healthy Ohio-Healthy Community award winners are:
Platinum: City of Westerville (Franklin) and City of Warren (Trumbull). Both cities have achieved five or more gold stars since the start of the Healthy Ohio-Healthy Community awards began in 2006.
Gold: Adams County; City of Athens (Athens); City of Brunswick (Medina): City of Dayton (Montgomery); City of Findlay (Hancock); City of Norwalk (Huron); City of Springdale (Hamilton); Lake County, Marion County; and City of Wilmington (Clinton).
Silver: City of Cincinnati (Hamilton); City of Nelsonville (Athens); City of Toledo (Lucas); Genoa Township (Delaware); Holmes County; Liberty Township (Delaware); and City of Mount Vernon (Knox)
Bronze: City of Dover (Union); Village of Sunbury (Delaware)
