OUR WORK
at Healthy Meck
Committed to Work Together

Community Centered Action

OVERVIEW

Healthy Meck is committed to including a diverse range of perspectives as we plan our work together. In addition to the wide range of groups and organizations that have supported our work, we are grateful to members of our partner neighborhoods who participated in community meetings that assisted the coalition in setting priorities.

The coalition hosted five community meetings in our five partner neighborhoods from January – March of 2024. A total of eighty-seven neighbors participated. Two were conducted in Spanish and three were conducted in English.

Together, we explored three questions:

How does our community support healthy living and who makes that happen?

What would need to happen in our community for everyone to have the opportunity for a long, healthy life?

What needs our immediate attention going forward to promote optimal health in the community?

“Groceries are so expensive and fresh vegetables are more expensive than canned goods.”
“The most important thing would be for the whole community to be able to understand the information more easily.”
“[We need to] try to support other as a community and help each other.”
“[We need to] educate parents so they can teach their kids about nutrition and healthy lifestyles.”

“The community is now so diverse…having these services that’s available for not only one group, but for everybody is really important.”

RESULTS

We analyzed the feedback provided during the summary phase of each event together with individual survey responses and found seven main themes, each representing a potential area of focus: health services, food and nutrition, exercise and active living, information access, health literacy and education, infrastructure, and community support.

All of this information was shared and discussed at the April 2024 coalition meeting. Members of the coalition voted and chose three focus areas based on what needs were expressed, what work is already being done, and what strengths the coalition can bring. Initial focus areas chosen were:

Food and Nutrition

Information Access

Community Support