By Cheril Lee
Omaha, NE – The 2011 Live Well Omaha Health Summit takes place Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.
Kerri Peterson is the Executive Director for Live Well Omaha. She says the purpose of the summit is to update people on the latest health data for Douglas County, health trends and the work that's happening to make Omaha a healthier city.
Peterson says some of the biggest challenges Omaha faces include obesity, an increase in chronic diseases as well as high STD rates. She says despite the challenges, the city has enjoyed some positive achievements. Peterson says among those are the addition of more bike lanes, healthy neighborhood stores and community gardens within schools.
"And I think one of the biggest successes we've seen is called Partners Putting Prevention to Work. We've gotten over 350 organizations in Omaha to agree to change at least one policy that makes the healthy choice the easy choice for their employees. We had put the goal at 270 and we are up to about 350 organizations. So we've seen a lot of success in the last two years."
The Live Well Omaha Health Summit takes place Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Scott Conference Center.
Details are available at livewellomaha.org.