Forming a vision for a healthier Oxford Hills

PARIS — As part of its long-term effort to develop a community health plan, Healthy Oxford Hills (HOH) recently held a community visioning session, asking local residents from all walks of life what they’d like the area to look like in 10 years.

The answers were as varied as responses gathered in an HOH survey last year.  However, by the end of the four-hour session, 32 participants had reached some consensus on projects that can be launched in the next few years to make the Oxford Hills a better, and healthier, place to live.

“When we talk about health, it’s in a very broad sense,” said HOH director Ken Morse.  “It’s health in terms of quality of life.  It’s not just the physical stuff.  We would invite you to think very broadly about what will make this a strong and healthy community.

People were invited to the visioning session from a wide array of backgrounds and community interests, as well as from both sides of the political spectrum, said Morse.

As the day wore on, participants coalesced into groups focusing on ideas to plant community gardens and promote “eat local” campaigns, to build a community center, to create new public transportation options, to launch a local news and networking website and to increase reliance on renewable resources, as well as to develop some means to educate parents on better child care strategies.

"If we don’t do a good job as parents, then our children are not going to be the kind of community members we want,” said Cyndy Tinsley, of West Paris.  “If we help children grow up in an atmosphere loving community service, sharing and caring, all the rest will fall into line.”

Katey Branch, of Paris, worked with a group that drafted ideas for a community news and networking website.  As envisioned, the site would mirror aspects of an online newspaper, municipal and business websites, a community outreach program and social-networking sites like Facebook, with marketing aspects similar to Craigslist, or eBay.

“This is the future of newspapers,” said State. Rep. Terry Hayes.

Already, Branch has started a Facebook group called “Oxford Hills Community Website” at which members will brainstorm ideas.

Kathryn Gardner spoke about the need for bus route shared by multiple towns to shuttle folks to and from various community centers and events.

“That bus also could be an information dissemination place,” she said, “and it would be biodiesel.”

Joan Beal’s group focused on the need for a community center, and the decades-long struggle to get a public pool in the area.

“The well is not real full yet in terms of the economy,” said Beal.  “So, we thought a ‘floating campus’ idea might be most practical to start off with, beginning with inventorying existing sites — like Legion halls, churches and things like that.  The community center would start off coordinating use of those sites, rather than being an actual center.”

Still, despite support in the room for a pool, the largest by the end of the day was the one focused on foods.

“We thought creating an awareness in the community of local food would be something immediate that we could do,” said Seal Rossignol, of Otisfield, adding that a community garden project already is underway in Norway.

Finally, Bill Roach, of Paris, spoke for a group that plans to push for private windmills.

“That’s our hope and dream for the future,” he said.

Roach also drew interest with a number of additional conservation ideas, including one he said already exists — a special toilet that creates compost material.

In many ways, the visioning session mirrored the results of a HOH survey conducted last year. 

Community Health Survey

On its website, and through its partnerships with several social service agencies, HOH got input from 255 people on the health status of the Oxford Hills.

Roach noted that answers tended to reflect the realms HOH went to with its survey — 70.5 percent of respondents were female, 58.3 percent were 40 years of age, or older, 50.6 had held a college or postgraduate degree, 71.2 percent have some form of private health insurance, and, of the 84 percent who divulged their finances, 38.4 percent made more than $50,000 per year.  Twenty respondents (7.8 percent) claimed to make more than $100,000.

Still, the survey results are noteworthy.  To each of the following statements, the given number is the percentage of respondents who said they either agreed, or strongly agreed:

• “I am satisfied with the quality of life in the Oxford Hills.” — 69.7 percent.

• “I am satisfied with the health care system in the Oxford Hills.” — 65 percent.

• “The Oxford Hills is a good place to raise children.” — 74.4 percent.

• “The Oxford Hills is a good place to grow old.” — 50.9 percent

• “There are economic opportunities in the Oxford Hills.” — 20.7 percent.

• “The Oxford Hills is a safe place to live.” — 80.3 percent.

• “I am satisfied with religious and spiritual opportunities in the Oxford Hills.” — 69.3 percent.

A little more than half of all respondents (50.4 percent) said they have lived in the Oxford Hills for at least 20 years.  Although 52.8 percent of those surveyed rated their own health as either “very good,” or “excellent,” only 40.7 percent were willing to describe the Oxford Hills, as a whole, as either “healthy,” or “very healthy.”

Asked to pick five factors “most important for a healthy community,” a total of 1,182 answers broke down as follows:

• Good schools — 14.4 percent.

• Good jobs and a healthy economy — 14.2 percent.

• Low crime and safe neighborhoods — 8.7 percent.

• Clean environment — 8.5 percent.

• Strong family life — 8.3 percent.

• Healthy behaviors and lifestyles —8.1 percent

• Access to health care — 7.9 percent.

The multiple-choice survey also included several fill-in-the-blank sections, which asked respondents to list two or three things that would “make the Oxford Hills a healthier place to live.”

Although HOH did not calculate percentages, it did tally the most frequently cited answers, listed them in order of priority.  There was a strong correlation between these answers, Morse noted, and the ideas drummed up at the visioning session.

First on the “what’s needed” list was recreational opportunities, including a community center, senior center, and/or a teen center, an indoor pool, a place for wintertime exercise, and more trails and better sidewalks for walking.

Next up was a demand for a stronger economy and better jobs.  Noting that the survey answers were taken from last summer through late November, Morse said, “I suspect this one would rate higher if we were to redo the survey now.”

Food and nutrition was the next most frequently cited category.  Requests called for farmer’s markets, community gardens, area schools and institutions making use of local produce, more nutrition education programs and choices for healthier restaurants in the area.

Education came in next with respondents asking for more after-school programs, parenting education and job skills classes.

Rounding out the list, in order, were: Better access to health care, programs to cope with drug and alcohol dependency, greater public transportation, affordable housing, support for low-income families, protection of the environment, improved access to mental health care and energy conservation.

What's next

Founded in 2000 as one of 28 Healthy Maine Partnerships, using settlement money awarded in a suit against the tobacco companies, HOH works to promote public health initiatives and foster better individual health choices by stumping for “supportive community environments and progressive public and workplace policies.”

“Our vision is for a caring, self-reliant community that comes together in a shared pursuit of a good quality of life for all Oxford Hills citizens,” says Morse.

The next step, he added, will be to collate all of the ideas and data collected from last year’s survey and the recent visioning session.  From that, Morse says, HOH will develop a community health plan.

Morse said creation of that plan — which will build upon the area’s strengths and address areas for improvement — will take “a couple of years.” 

“There’s quite an extended process that we are contracted to do,” says Morse, noting that next up, now that visioning is complete, is a set of four separate regional assessments, some of which are “very data intensive.”

Perhaps with that in mind, a number of folks at the visioning session put out a call to follow up on the day’s events.

“I’ve been to a number of these things over the years,” said Dr. Donald Ware, of Norway.  “My hope is that we can keep the excitement and the enthusiasm generated here today going, to effect some real and positive change.”

“People were pretty revved up and wanted to get things moving,” says Morse.

On Friday, information gathered from the visioning session was sent to everyone who attended to the meeting, as well as to all 120 persons invited.

Already, two groups have sprung up to spearhead efforts to promote local foods and to create a community website.

The foods group is tentatively scheduled to meet at 2:30 p.m. today, February 12, at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS).

The website group will meet at 2 p.m. on Monday, March 2, also at OHCHS.

Morse says it appears as if a third group will form soon in support of a community center.  It is no coincidence, he said, that the meeting will take place at OHCHS, given that many of the idea generated in both the HOH survey and the visioning session also were identified in an October, 2008 teen summit.

“Part of the reason we are having these meetings at the high school is so we can fold adults and teens together into one group,” said Morse.

Anyone interested in working on committees formed around needs identified by the visioning group should contact Morse by calling 739-6222, or by visiting HOH’s new home, at 159 Main Street, in Norway.