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Clinton Foundation health initiative officially underway

Local leaders met this morning with Clinton Foundation representatives to begin the multi-year process of improving the health of Knox County residents through the Clinton Health Matters Initiative.

CHMI CEO Rain Henderson says today’s meeting was “the beginning conversation” ahead of multiple sessions that will run for three to six months until a plan is ready to be implemented.

“Implementation is focused very intensively around a 5-year period and we know full well that many of these changes you wont even start to see the outcomes of for a number of years,” Henderson says. “We think that most communities should be prepared to spend about 10 years; five years intensively working on this and another couple years on sustainability and long term infrastructure inclusion.”

Addressing the room of organization heads and lawmakers in the Carl Sandburg College lobby, Knox County Health Department Administrator Michele Gabriel said effecting change can take five, 10, 15 or even 20 years. 

“But they take that long because for intervention, you must literally convince individuals, or influence an individual, to make a healthier lifestyle choice,” Gabriel said. “That’s not easy.”

People broke into groups throughout the day to continue discussion on a project framework.

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