Posted on September 22, 2018
Author Jacque Ryan, WKVI
The North Judson Town Council received an informative presentation about the Merit Foundation when members met Monday night.
Chairman of the organization David Weinberg explained that Merit’s goal is to help improve the county’s health statistics.
He informed the council members and meeting attendees that county health statistics are gathered by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which is the second largest charity organization in the world. During the measuring process, 35 various health indicators are measured.
Currently, Starke County is ranked at 79. The Merit Foundation is in the process of gathering various community resources to help develop a strategic plan so the county can improve 10 points every year for the next 8 years to shoot up to the top of the list.
Weinberg highlighted the fact that in some areas, Starke County is already doing better than Hamilton County, which is currently ranked as number one.
He explained, “We have less alcohol-related deaths per person than Hamilton County, we have less income inequality than Hamilton County, we have better air quality, we have better drinking water quality and less people drive alone to work. So in five of them, we’re already better.”
Weinberg stressed that we don’t need to be ranked number one in every category to be considered number one, we just need to strategically improve our statistics in a few areas to help boost our ranking.
The Merit Foundation will be hosting the first of many cornerstone events on Sunday, September 30th. This event will feature local artists and musicians and will be a chance for community members to connect and reflect on ways to improve the overall health of our county’s residents.
For more information from Weinberg’s presentation, tune into Kankakee Valley Viewpoints tomorrow at 12 p.m. CDT.
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