Health: Consumer as Captain

In the final installment of the six article series, Citistates Group journalists Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson examine New England's prospects for health.

The Healthy City Fall River initiative engages local citizens in healthy activity designed to improve the quality of life in the city.

New England leads America in health care industry employment and biosciences leadership. But the region's medical machine has downsides: its inflationary cost rises imperil the six states' economies; it's packed with perverse incentives that boost costs and increase medical risks; and — most seriously — it's not making the region's people any healthier. Peirce and Johnson relay and develop ideas, based on their region-wide interviews, on how New England could coalesce to get out of the its health system trap — switching priorities from cures to prevention and empowering the health care consumer.

This final article in the six part series, “New Century, New Game,” will begin appearing in newspapers around the region starting on March 4th, and can also be read in its entirety at our website.

New England Futures Spotlight

Each month, New England Futures highlight projects that are already seeking to make a difference in the issue of that month. This month, we focus on health initiatives. See the Best Practices area of our website under Health for more projects.

KIDS COUNT

KIDS COUNT is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

KIDS COUNT is a national and state-by-state project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to track the status of children in the United States. At the national level, the principal activity of the initiative is the publication of the annual KIDS COUNT Data Book, which uses the best available data to measure the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children state by state. The KIDS COUNT State Level Data Online system has new and updated health indicators including rates of regular exercise and obesity for children and youth, low and very low birthweight babies, births by race, teen births, and numbers of infant deaths. By providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being, KIDS COUNT seeks to enrich local, state, and national discussions of ways to secure better futures for all children. Find out more about KIDS COUNT, and KIDS COUNT projects in each New England state, by going to the KIDS COUNT website.

Healthy Neighborhoods/Healthy Kids

Students at Lawrence Barnes Elementary School in Burlington participate in a Jeh Kulu African dance workshop.

The Healthy Neighborhoods/ Healthy Kids program engages youth in community planning and revitalization activities by having 4th and 5th grade students draw connections between the design of their communities and impacts on their health. This program is a collaboration of the Vermont Forum on Sprawl and the Sustainable Schools Project (a partnership of Shelburne Farms, Vermont Education for Sustainability and Burlington's Legacy Project). Program staff work with teachers in the school to develop the curriculum, activities, messages and guide for the parents.

Submit your project to be highlighted next month by the New England Futures project by sending a description of the project to info@newenglandfutures.org.

Feedback on Transportation

Last month's article on transportation, Road, Rail, Air, Water: Separate Worlds or One System?, has generated the most feedback of any of the issues so far. Some comments we received about the articles are as follows:

"I thought the Pierce-Johnson piece was the best thing I have read on the subject in a long time." ~ Former Massachusett governor Michael Dukakis, a long-time rail advocate

"Congratulations for writing such a far ranging and comprehensive piece. The most important message is that, just as we have decided to apply the principles of "mass transit" to the movement of people, we need to apply this same principle to the movement of freight. For years, the "official school solution" to the problem of traffic congestion has been to limit the effort to reducing the number of automobiles and to do absolutely nothing about reducing the number of trucks! If we are to have a fair and effective solution, we must apply the principles of "mass transit" to both. Finally, may I suggest that your organization take an active interest in the North East Rail Operations Study, currently underway. ~ Dick Carpenter, member of Connecticut Public Transportation Commission, the East of Hudson Rail Freight Operations Task Force and the I-95 Coastal Corridor Transportation Investment Area Board

"I want to congratulate [Neal Peirce] and Curtis Johnson on the insightful articles on "Rail Links" and the traffic congestion which affects New England. [It was a] good article on the need for alternatives to simply paving over more land and adding to the existing pollution, when the use of, in many cases, existing railways would go a long way of solving our congestion problems." ~ reader from Connecticut

What’s Next for New England Futures

With the final installment of the six part article series, New England: New Century, New Game, just released, a new chapter opens for the New England Futures project. At the end of March, both the Partnership for New England and Strategic Alliance will meet on consecutive days to begin forming a strategy to implement regional initiatives for New England. If you have not yet submitted your ideas about initiatives you would like to see New England Futures take action on, please send them to actionagenda@newengland futures.org before March 25th so that they can be considered at these meetings. Go to the Action Agenda area of our website to see what ideas have already been suggested.

We will share the outcomes of those meetings with you in our April newsletter.