Healthy Communities Initiative
by Steve Zollos
As the Executive Director of Healthy Communities for Bon Secours, I have had the opportunity to visit a wide variety of our communities in Hampton Roads. I have attended civic league meetings, rode with the police department’s Community Resource Officers, worked with city government and local businesses, and most importantly, I have spoken with neighborhood residents about healthy communities.
As it turns out, there are many things that need to come together to make a community healthy. Things like safety, good drinking water, recreational opportunities for the youth, food for the hungry, transportation, affordable housing, clean neighborhoods, education and economic opportunities, and the list goes on and on.
So let’s define a healthy community. A good working definition of a healthy community is “a community that is thriving in its diversity – economic diversity, racial diversity, and religious diversity.” The hallmark of a truly healthy neighborhood is that it works to help all the diverse parts of the community to prosper. When diversity is encouraged, pride in the neighborhood is shared, goals become common to all, and positive change becomes possible. In such an environment crime cannot help but decrease and areas that were once havens for drug dealing become unwelcoming to such activities. In addition, the youth are given positive direction in an environment that fosters their success. A healthy community becomes possible as people rally together for change that is good for everyone who loves their neighborhood.
Building healthy communities is all about drawing out the best in people. It’s helping a neighborhood come together to love one another – in practical ways. That’s what we should all do…help each other.
So why would Bon Secours Health System make a priority out of building healthy communities? Simple, Bon Secours is much more than a group of hospitals and other health related services. In keeping with the mission of the Sisters of Bon Secours and the Franciscan Sisters, they are committed to being in the communities that they serve promoting the health and wellbeing of their neighbors. It’s part of the ongoing healing mission of Jesus Christ, and it’s being lived out right here in our community through Bon Secours.
