HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES COMMITTEE SEEKS INPUT

Bad weather forced cancellation of the Healthier Communities Committee town hall meeting Friday at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center. Committee members, however, will keep working to gather public input on making Cape Girardeau County a healthier place to live.

The meeting at the senior center will be rescheduled, said Charlotte Craig, administrator of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center. Several other town hall meetings are coming up.

During the meetings, residents will have a chance to air their views on issues that affect community health and the quality of life in Cape County, said Dale Rauh, corporate planner for St. Francis Medical Center, one of the sponsors of the Healthier Communities Committee. Other sponsors are the public health center, Southeast Missouri Hospital, Community Caring Council, Cape Girardeau County Area Medical Society and Southeast Missouri State University.

Concerns won't necessarily focus on disease or medical services, Craig said. They also include things like teen pregnancy and transportation.

"People have to stop and think, how does transportation affect teen pregnancy? How does transportation affect economics? If teens can't get transportation to get to work, they're going to find other things to do," Craig said. "Health doesn't necessarily translate into the earaches, the toe aches, the pneumonia; it's also the teen pregnancies and transportation."

Once the town hall meetings are concluded, the Healthier Communities Committee will compile data and determine an initial project.

Transportation, or the lack of it, is an issue that keeps coming up, Craig said. It may be the first issue the committee winds up tackling, Rauh said.

It's important that the committee hears from everyone in the community, he said. "We don't just want to hear from the leaders," Rauh said. "We want the whole community."

The town hall meetings "afford us a whole cross section" of Cape County, he said.

Community health issues identified by the committee so far include the need to foster community and family values, provide access to primary medical care, health education, teen pregnancy, transportation, substance abuse, affordable health care, personal accountability for health and school drop-out rates.

The committee is working in conjunction with Missouri's CHART (Community Health Action Resource Team) project, which is aimed at improving community health across the state.

MEETING DATES

-- Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Salvation Army, 701 Good Hope.

-- Feb. 26 at 5:30 p.m. with the Jackson Chamber of Commerce at Delmonico's.

-- Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. at Oak Ridge High School.

-- March 21 at 7 p.m. at Delta High School.

-- March 26 at 7 p.m. in the activities building of the First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau.