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| HEALTH |
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Duplicate
or distribute this activity. Students may work independently or cooperatively.
Health
Heroes
Some community workers make obvious contributions to the health of the
community; for example, volunteer firefighter Robin Hinchey in Westminster,
Maryland puts out fires and rescues people. (Segment 8) Others make
less obvious but equally important contributions.
Explore ways
in which public- and private-sector workers contribute to the health
of people in their communities.
• Discuss
how Kevin Fagerstrom (Segment 5) and Linda Marshall Hill
(Segment 6) help keep people healthy in the communities in which they
work. Find a refresher on these and other stories by visiting the Livelyhood,
“Our Towns” Web site (http://www.pbs.org/livelyhood/ourtowns.html).
• Identify
people in your community who are unsung health heroes. Write a paragraph
about each one, explaining his or her contributions. Add photographs
and other visuals if you can.
You might
use your paragraphs and visuals, and those of classmates, to create
a presentation on local health heroes for elementary school students,
and give this presentation to classes in local schools. You may even
want to nominate local heroes to the Points of Light Foundation (http://www.pointsoflight.org)!
A
Healthy Community
Is the well-being of individuals affected by the overall economic health
of a community? How can a community keep itself economically healthy?
Will Durst says that a community is “a lot like a stew. You only get
out of it what you put into it, it helps if you’ve got a good mix, and
you’d best keep a careful watch to make sure it doesn’t burn.” Have
a discussion about this quote, using some of these questions to begin:
• What
do you think about this formula?
• What
is your formula for creating an economically healthy community?
• How can
individuals make an impact on the economic health of their community?
Check out Livelyhood’s “Our Towns” community and civic life resources
for tips (http://www.pbs.org/livelyhood/ourtowns/resources.html).
Create a brief
presentation outlining your conclusions. Present it to a class or a
neighborhood group. You might also invite a local government official
to come to talk to the class to add another dimension to the discussion
of economic health. You could ask questions about what kinds of businesses
civic officials are trying to attract. You might also debate what kinds
of economic activity make a community healthy from the perspectives
of its residents, its business leaders, and its government officials.
Discuss these points:
• How do
the concerns of these three groups differ?
• What
goals do they share?
• How could
they cooperate to make your community a dynamic and satisfying place
to live and work in the future?
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