Rural Action | Building Healthy Communities

About Rural Action

Our History

Building Healthy Communities

MediaMorphosis directed the
print production
of this project.

MediaMorphosis Team Members

Editor
Michelle Ajamian

Copy Editor
Linda Stewart

Writers
Michelle Ajamian Melody Sands

Illustrator
Sandy Plunkett

Project Director
Michelle Ajamian

About Rural Action | Our History | Building Healthy Communities

Introduction
Understanding Sustainability Indicators
Environmental Indicators
Human Needs Indicators
Economic Indicators
We Are Not Alone. . .

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

What's Behind Building Healthy Communities

By Carol Kuhre

Building Healthy Communities is the result of three years of conferences and research. It just begins to tell an important story of the relationships among people, communities, economy and environment in our region.

The heart of this publication, the indicators themselves, is unlike anything you've seen in a newspaper before. You will be reading research documents, the kind of writing few people care to read, or to write.

Research has the power to bring about policy that affects everyone. In Seattle, Washington, a document similar to this brought about changes that have made Seattle a leader in sustainable development. We have borrowed from Seattle's work in writing Building Healthy Communities. We hope our humble attempt to begin this research brings more of you into a process that will help us choose a viable path for our region's future.

In 1994 Rural Action, the Corporation for National Service, and the Stanley Foundation brought together 75 people at Lake Hope Lodge in Vinton County. Since then people have gathered in small groups, at conferences, luncheons, and in action research teams, to understand the impact of human activity on our region. Our inquiry is part of a worldwide sustainability movement.

Our region, rich in natural resources and hard-working people, has long been used as a seedbed to profit outside development interests. Those interests have brought more than a century of economic boom and bust, and the resulting environmental degradation. Today there is evidence of uneven development. Larger towns and cities thrive while smaller farm and mining communities barely survive; superhighways move people and goods through the region but local citizens have little or no public transportation; new superstores and malls ring our towns while downtown merchants struggle to survive.

To move away from that cycle, we've asked one another what can we do to ensure that our children and grandchildren are able to have satisfying lives while staying in this region. We need a longrange plan if there is to be enough good, affordable housing, transportation, and medical care. We need to meet the educational needs of future generations and ensure safe water, adequate sewer systems, and healthy recreational activities. These are inadequacies even now, so it s clear that we must work hard to turn in the right direction. Answers and solutions to these questions must come from you local residents who are most concerned about the quality of community life.

At the first conference at Lake Hope, participants decided to gather information under the themes of land use, basic human needs, environmental health, sustainable economic development and the local/global connection. VISTAs assigned to Rural Action organized grassroots citizens committees in five counties for information gathering and planning. Those committees sponsored four conferences titled Sustainable Land Use, Meeting Basic Human Needs, Sustainable Economic Development Alternatives, and Environmental Health and our Bioregion. They also organized luncheons to discuss Agenda 21 (the United Nations sustainable development plan) and linked with local universities for survey and library research.

To help us measure our work in the global context, the Stanley Foundation supported participation of several Rural Action staff and VISTAs in the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development Conference held in conjunction with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in April 1997. Rural Action has since been selected as a regional representative to the national Citizens Network for Sustainable Development.

This report, Building Healthy Communities, was conceived last fall [1997] by Mary Steinmaus, Program Officer for the Stanley Foundation, with Rural Action Program Director Michelle Decker and Michelle Ajamian, Director of MediaMorphosis. Their collective vision of a publication distributed through our local newspapers represents a leap of imagination; its realization has required enormous energy and organization.

As a sustainability indicators document, Building Healthy Communities is just a beginning. It describes the steps local citizens and organizations have taken towards building sustainable communities in southern Ohio. We are pleased to share our initial findings with you.

NEXT: Understanding Sustainability Indicators >>

Building Healthy Communities, A Rural Action publication about Sustainability Indicators ©1998 by Rural Action, Inc.
This report is the result of work at Rural Action from 1994-98. The print version of this publication was produced in Spring 1998 with support from the Stanley Foundation. You can order a copy by calling Rural Action at 740-593-7490.