North Idaho Alliance Women of Impact: In their words
Marilee Wallace
What does a healthy community mean to you? This was a question asked at the Onward & Upward Women’s conference. Here are some of the answers:
Good jobs and education; everyone is accepted; safety and fairness; patriotism; everyone has a home; that there is a healthy college; helping neighbors; there is a healthy college; access to health care for all; green spaces encouraging exercise; responsibility with grace.
Nice — yes? Polly-annaish? Maybe. But wouldn’t it be lovely if all these words were actually the community to live in? Perhaps we do.
A deeper dive into this question found that the World Health Organization defines a healthy city by a process, not an outcome. Key takeaways are:
People — A healthy city takes a human approach to development, prioritizing investment in people and ensuring access for all to common goods and services. This includes:
Investment in human and social capital as a strategic approach for urban development; promoting inclusion, integration and non-discrimination; building trust, resilience and a focus on ethics and values.
Participation — A healthy city leads by example ensuring community participation in decisions that affect where and how people live, their common goods and services. This includes:
Improved city spaces and services, based on the needs and assets in communities; stronger accountability and governance for health and well-being; empowered and resilient populations; increased ownership over individual health and well-being.
Prosperity — A healthy city strives for enhanced community prosperity and strengthened assets through values-based governance of common goods and services. This includes:
Progressive measures of social progress; investment in the circular economy; universal minimum social protection.
Planet — A healthy city ensures that the health and well-being of both the people and the planet are at the heart of all the city’s internal and external policies. This includes:
A whole-of-city approach to health and well-being; coherence across levels of governance in the approach to health and well-being; strengthened city health diplomacy.
Place — A healthy city creates an accessible social, physical and cultural environment that facilitates the pursuit of health and well-being. This includes:
Shifting from a needs-based to an assets-based approach; human-centered urban development and planning; integrating health equity and sustainability into urban development and planning; enhanced inclusiveness in the use and governance of common spaces.
Peace — A healthy city leads by example by promoting and keeping peace in all its actions, policies and systems. This includes:
Institutions, governance systems and architecture that prioritize social justice and inclusive participation; the promotion of cultural norms of inclusion and equity, a non-exploitative egalitarian approach; formal governance and societal norms that tackle corruption, discrimination and all forms of violence.
North Idaho Alliance is open for all women in North Idaho who are wanting to learn and connect. Our only goal is to empower women to impact community. NIA is getting a bit of a reputation — we’ll take that!
The Women of Impact Leadership Roundtable meets once a month for a nine-month series beginning each September through May. Our details are at www.theniallaince.com or join https://www.facebook.com/groups/972216519983800
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Marilee Wallace, IOM, president/CEO of the North Idaho Alliance Women of Impact.
