Five years ago the City of Nevada entered into a partnership to improve the quality of life in the community. Today, they revealed the results of their work so far.
The focus of Healthy Nevada has been placed on building biking and hiking trails, as well as helping people make informed choices about diet, exercise and other health issues like smoking. City leaders say the partnership has shown great success over its first five years, and that’s because the community has bought into the program.
J.D. Kehrman, Nevada City Manager: “When somebody other than the community itself owns health, you’re missing the mark. This is about creating opportunity for individuals and for families, and you can’t do that if it’s the city manager’s initiative, or the hospital’s initiative, or the school’s initiative; it’s got to be the community’s initiative, so that’s absolutely key to the success that we’ve had here.”
According to Healthy Nevada, Vernon county’s overall health ranking has improved from 88th in the state in 2012 to 60th in 2016, meanwhile healthy behavioral practices has improved from 104th to 52nd during that time. There are 115 counties in the state of Missouri included in that study.
