Governor's Get Healthy Kentucky Summit
The University of Louisville in partnership with the Governor’s Office of Wellness and Physical Activity hosted the first Governor’s Get Healthy Kentucky Summit. The event was held at the University of Louisville, Shelby Campus, on September 24, 2007.
President and Mrs. James R. Ramsey hosted a VIP reception on Sunday, September 23, 2007 in recognition of the Governor's Get Healthy Kentucky Summit. Personal invitations from the Office of the President were mailed to the summit attendees and approximately 100 people attend this event.
The Governor’s Get Healthy Kentucky Summit brought together influential citizens from various affiliations (government, public health, business, education, etc) with the commission to develop strategic wellness initiatives for regions of the Commonwealth.
The day’s plenary speaker was Dr. Lloyd Kolbe, the founding director of the Centers for Disease Control’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, and the former director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on Health Education and Promotion for School-Aged Children and Youth. Another of the day’s panel included Metro Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, who discussed the city’s successful Healthy Hometown Movement program.
The 200+ participants initially met within specific expertise groups, to share ideas within their industry. Then, armed with the state’s best approaches in their particular specialty areas, the invitees from a geographic area of Kentucky met together to determine regional wellness initiatives. With the mediation of their respective state universities, each region emerged with an action plan targeted to improve the health of their particular portion of the state.
Each university and their team were asked to develop one strategic wellness initiative that the team could implement over the next year. The universities will report on their progress toward meeting this goal throughout the year and their information will be available on this Web site.
To get involved in wellness issues in your community, please contact the Partnership for a Fit Kentucky Regional Coalition in your area. There are 11 coalitions statewide with a diverse group of community members already working to identify and address needs in your community.
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