Norwood to receive Gold Award for promoting good health

The City of Norwood will receive a Gold Healthy Ohio-Healthy Community award Oct. 15 at the Ohio Society for Public Health Education Health Educator’s Institute annual meeting at Salt Fork State Park Lodge and Conference Center in Cambridge. The City of Norwood is one of 14 communities to be honored by the Ohio Department of Health Office of Healthy Ohio (OHO) in 2010.

“Norwood has won Gold four years in a row due to the on-going commitment to live a healthy lifestyle by members of the community,” said Norwood Health Commissioner Pamela Walker-Bauer, MPH, RS.

Healthy Ohio-Healthy Community awards recognize communities’ outstanding achievements in implementing health-related policies and providing healthy community environments. The award recognizes communities’ efforts in encouraging and enabling employees, residents and visitors to make healthy choices including participating in physical activity, eating good, nutritious foods and avoiding tobacco.

“The overall well being of a community is one of the most important things we can invest in,” said ODH Director Alvin D. Jackson, MD. “The City of Norwood is helping to improve the health of our state and is a model for what all Ohio communities can be for their residents and visitors.”

OHO is a key component of Gov. Ted Strickland’s comprehensive health care reform initiative and consists of three core areas: health promotion, disease prevention and health equity.