Issue Position: Building Healthy Communities

Issue Position

Three areas are crucial to Building Healthy Communities:

HEALTHY PEOPLE
Healthy people live in communities where their children and those they love have access to quality, affordable health care. That's a given. But adults and children must also take responsibility for their own well-being. From good nutrition to smart lifestyle choices, we can do many things to improve our health. We can create incentives and rewards that are tied to positive personal and public health outcomes.

HEALTHY BUSINESSES
Businesses flourish in communities where people want to live, work and play. A key element of a healthy business community is a welcoming infrastructure, one that fosters innovation, growth and sustainability. Our region boasts tremendous human and natural resources that we must utilize as much as possible. Add to that a strong educational system and we have the foundation to leverage good paying jobs, now and into the future.

HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS
Healthy environments bring people and businesses together in a way that is good for the environment, public health and the bottom line. Promoting healthy environments doesn't require mutually exclusive choices (such as pitting the environment against job creation). Rather, it means thinking creatively to bring together and encourage "green" jobs and healthy lifestyles.

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