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WHAT IS HEALTHY FUTURES?
Healthy Futures is a forward-looking movement of
citizen and groups -- families, schools, neighborhoods,
organizations and institutions -- working together to
improve the health and the quality of life of all people
in Kalamazoo County.
- Healthy Futures is guided by some
fundamental principles:
- A broad definition of health embracing
both the well-being of individuals and the entire
community, including education, employment,
safety, environmental quality, spiritual and
cultural well-being.
- Community ownership and inclusion which
recognizes that health is a condition which each
of us is responsible for and each of us must have
a part in making a reality. Health includes and
acceptance of our diversity and our efforts to be
inclusive. Healthy Futures believes
that citizens, as well as leaders, must band
together to tackle the needs and opportunities
facing the county.
- The work of Healthy Futures is
shaped by a shared vision and common values forged
through an open and inclusive process of
direction setting and collaborative
community-wide planning open to everyone. WE
believe that by sharing our views and values with
each other we can find common ground, create a
shared vision for the future, and enlist everyone
in taking mutually supportive actions.
- Collaboration and consensus-building are
key approaches to Healthy Futures decision-making
and action. Through collaboration, working
together with the goal of enhancing and
supporting each other's efforts; and through
consensus-building we ensure that everyone has an
equal voice in decision-making.
- Healthy Futures believes in
achieving measurable outcomes and in
evaluating its success on those outcomes --
visible changes in the health and quality of life
in the county.
- Identifying an addressing the underlying risk
factors -- getting behind the symptoms of
issues to the real causes -- is a basic approach
of Healthy Futures. For example,
many of the major diseases of county residents,
such as heart disease and cancer, result from
individual life style behaviors, including
overeating and smoking. Similarly, problems such
as domestic abuse and violent crime stem in part
from conditions of poverty. Reducing and
preventing the effects of such underlying risk
factors for a wide range of personal and
community problems is a goal of Healthy
Futures.
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