Lakewood Wins Community Health Challenge

Cuyahoga County recently named Lakewood as the overall winner of the inaugural Community Health Challenge.

The city scored the highest overall point total amongst participating communities. A total of 9 communities participated in the Community Health Challenge, in addition to taking advantage of resources provided by challenge partners.

“The community of Lakewood has taken on the challenge of getting off the couch, start moving, and improving our eating habits,” said Lakewood Mayor Michael Summers. “Our unique city design of 180 miles of sidewalks with plenty of interesting and convenient destinations takes away any excuses we my conjure up.”

The Community Health Challenge is a countywide competition to drive improvements to health and well being across Cuyahoga County, which ranked 65th out of Ohio’s 88 counties in the 2014 County Health Rankings.

“We are excited that communities are valuing the importance of health and wellness and have taken advantage of the Community Health Challenge and the resources that it provides,” said Ed FitzGerald, a Lakewood resident and county executive. “The participation from the communities is essential as they can now educate their municipal employees and residents to ensure that we continue to grow together as a healthy region.”

In addition to the overall winner for the challenge, Lakewood won in the category of active living, and tied with Cleveland for the healthy eating category. Awards are also being presented to Euclid for the highest points in the tobacco free and most improved categories.

Each of the participating municipalities had the opportunity to answer questions on a Challenge Checklist that indicated whether they have implemented various policies, guidelines, or activities in their municipal workplace or local community. Communities also had the opportunity to improve their scores by working with the county on implementing new health and wellness policies.

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Volume 10, Issue 23, Posted 12:41 PM, 11.11.2014