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HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign for the
Mid-Atlantic is an initiative of
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and with generous support from
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January is a great time of year to show your commitment to health and wellness, especially for your municipality. Help your residents keep their New Year's resolutions to be more active and to eat healthier by adopting a HEAL Cities & Towns Resolution for your entire community. When you set the goal to join the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign during 2014, you will get recognized as a community that is committed to health and wellness. You will also receive free technical assistance and support from HEAL Staff. Is your municipality ready? To learn more about the campaign, visit www.healcitiesmidatlantic.org/.
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Featured Topic of the Month
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Give Your Community a New Year's Resolution to Move More & Eat Better
New Years resolutions aren't just for
 individuals. They can be for your municipality as well. Get your municipality started off on the right foot during 2014 by setting a New Years resolution to get your community active and eating right. Options Options Policy-level work is especially important in ensuring that your resolution becomes a reality. One simple step is to partner with the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign to adopt a resolution for your municipality. Some of the most popular resolution goals among Heal Cities & Towns include:
Access to Affordable, Nutritious Foods:
- Updating the municipality's comprehensive plan to include provisions that address access to affordable, nutritious foods
- Creating/promoting farmers' markets through establishing a memorandum of understanding or joint use agreement, encouraging SNAP/EBT to be accepted at farmers' markets, or instituting guidelines and/or zoning controls that allow farmers' markets
Physical Activity, Active Transportation, and Land Use:
- Updating the municipality's comprehensive plan to include provisions that promote bikeability and walkability
- Designing streets/roads to be safe for all users (motorists, bicycles, pedestrians, handicapped) through adopting a Complete Streets Policy, adopting traffic calming measures, adopting policies to paint bike lanes, or adopting policies to stripe crosswalks
Municipal Workplace Wellness:
- Adopting nutrition standards aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in all municipally� or county�owned or operated venues that serve food, including special events
- Encouraging stairwell usage through an open, unlocked stairwell policy
These are just a sampling of the many different resolution goals that your municipality can adopt this year. Contact us for more information.
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| Community Spotlight | |
Town of Somserset, MD
- Somerset, MD became the first municipality in the Mid-Atlantic to join the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign one year ago in January 2013.
- Since then, Somerset has moved beyond the Resolution and adopted two policies that increase access to healthy foods, including: a policy ensuring access to free drinking water in the municipal workplace, and a nutrition standard for foods sold on Town property.
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| Tools & Resources | |
Check Out These Webinars to
Get Your Year Started Right
Webinar #1: Creating Healthy Food Access in
Municipal Workplaces One Bite at a Time
Sponsored by the HEAL Cities and Town Campaign of the Mid-Atlantic, this webinar will cover strategies, resources, and success stories for improving municipal employees' access to healthy foods in the municipal workplace, such as healthy vending, healthy meeting policies, and nutrition standards. Speakers will include subject matter experts from around the country, including Arlington, VA!
TOMORROW: January 9, 2014
1:30-2:45pm EST
Reserve your webinar seat now by clicking here.
Webinar #2:
Enhancing Walking & Biking in Rural & Suburban Cities 
Join leaders from across the nation to learn about efforts to enhance walking and biking in rural and suburban cities.
- Councilmember Ian Thomas of Columbia Missouri and Board Member of America WALKS will address why walking and biking are key strategies for cities, what policies and programs support them, and how rural communities can tackle their unique opportunities and challenges.
- Mayor Heidi Williams, Thornton Colorado, will share her city's funding strategy for building walking and biking infrastructure in a suburban setting.
- Planners Kevin Belanger and Rebecca Torma from Rockville Maryland will share strategies for engaging developers in funding and building walking and biking routes.
January 23, 2014
2:00-3:15pm EST
Reserve your webinar seat now by clicking here.
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Sincerely,
Marisa Jones
HEAL Cities & Towns
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