New task force charts healthy future for Manatee

BRADENTON — A new task force began a three-year project Tuesday to make Manatee County residents healthier.

While members got acquainted and tossed around ideas for preventing chronic disease and promoting healthy living, moderator Donna Keith hit on what seemed like an obvious starting point for the discussion.

Why, she asked, are Manatee County buildings not already tobacco-free?

Why are people allowed to smoke in county parks?

And why does the health department, the site of Tuesday afternoon’s meeting, permit smoking on its campus?

“If we’re asking other businesses and other industries to consider having 100 percent tobacco-free campuses, we need to be at the avant-garde. We need to be at the forefront. So far, we’re not,” said Keith, the community health nursing supervisor at the health department.

Fifteen community leaders got together to become a Community Health Action Response Team. The team included Lakewood Ranch Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Jim Wilson, Dr. Inda Mowett and Manatee County Commissioner Gwendolyn Brown as well as representatives from the school district, YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters and other organizations that serve residents of all ages.

Team members discussed focusing on childhood obesity, tobacco cessation, exercise and county planning changes that could improve the walkability and safety of certain areas.

“It’s going to be an interesting endeavor,” Brown said. “It’s a pretty good start for trying to talk to folks about obesity in young children. Our children are not as active as they used to be. ... You’ve got to try to get folks thinking about what they’re eating. Of course, you want to do it before my age.”

The group was created after Manatee County became one of 40 communities in the United States to receive a $40,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control. Grantees are called Action Communities for Health, Innovation and Environmental Change.

The team will meet again April 6 to create a mission statement and pin down areas of concentration. Several members will attend a four-day Action Institute training seminar in June in Tampa.

“I’m delighted we had a cross-section of people that addressed the different age groups because I think that’s critical,” Keith said. “I felt very heartened to see that people do have an interest in it and are willing to give their time.”

The team will spend the first year and $15,000 of the grant compiling a community action plan, coming up with at least one policy, environmental or system change in each of five sectors of the community: the community at large, schools, worksites, health care and community institutions/organizations.

The next two years and the remaining $25,000 of the grant will go toward identifying and securing resources for the action plan.

Keith said the effort will focus on new policies, not the creation of new programs.

“Programs can come and go,” Keith said. “Policy changes are sustainable.”