Bill Text: NJ ACR139 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges US Department of Health and Human Services and NJ DOH to promote "Healthy Community" initiatives.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-25 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Committee [ACR139 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2020-ACR139-Introduced.html

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ASSEMBLY CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. 139

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

219th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 25, 2020

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman  VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

Assemblywoman  SHAVONDA E. SUMTER

District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)

Assemblywoman  ANGELA V. MCKNIGHT

District 31 (Hudson)

 

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Holley, Assemblywomen Timberlake, Speight and Assemblyman Spearman

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Urges US Department of Health and Human Services and NJ DOH to promote "Healthy Community" initiatives.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  

A Concurrent Resolution urging the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the New Jersey Department of Health to promote "Healthy Community" initiatives.

 

Whereas,  While there is no established definition of a "Healthy Community," communities should be better defined by comparing available resources among different areas; and

Whereas,  African-American, Hispanic-Americans, and other minority group communities experience debilitating health conditions that are brought on by a lack of resources and result in quantifiable health disparities; and

Whereas,  Health, both at the individual and community level, consists of more than physical health and includes spiritual, emotional, social, economic and environmental health and these aspects of health are all interconnected; and

Whereas,  African-Americans encounter disproportionately higher rates of mortality and morbidity and have significantly higher rates of poverty, hazardous environmental exposure, inadequate educational resources, and fewer employment options; and

Whereas,  The lasting legacy of racial enslavement, discrimination, and bias are contributing factors to unhealthy outcomes in African-American communities; and

Whereas,  A comprehensive series of "Healthy Community" studies and initiatives will help better define healthy communities and more effectively allocate resources to improve the well-being of citizens in every community; and

Whereas,  Empirical evidence should be used to measure access to vital services and resources, to help distinguish a healthy community from a less healthy community, and to direct resources to less healthy communities reducing that community's rates of morbidity, mortality, poverty, and crime; and

Whereas,  "Healthy Community" initiatives can engage key stakeholders about addressing disparities in less healthy communities and can create programs such as Opportunity Zones and community inventories that focuses investments and expands access to healthier resources in those communities; now, therefore,

 

     Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey (the Senate concurring):

 

     1.  The Legislature urges the United States Department of Health and the New Jersey Department of Health to codify a definition of a "Healthy Community" based on resource-availability and to promote "Healthy Community" initiatives that study health and resource disparities among communities, promote collaboration with key community stakeholders and partners, and encourage further resource investments in less healthy communities.

     2.  Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly or the Secretary of the Senate to the United States President, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Governor of New Jersey, and the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This resolution urges the US Department of Health and Human Services and the New Jersey Department of Health to codify a definition of a "Healthy Community" based on resource availability and to promote "Healthy Community" initiatives that study health and resource disparities among communities, promote collaboration between key community stakeholders and partners, and encourage further resource investments in less healthy communities.

     Health encompasses a broad range of factors that include physical, spiritual, emotional, social, economic, and environmental health at the individual and community level.  Many communities, especially the African-American community, have suffered quantifiable health disparities as the result of lacking community resources and the systematic oppression of that specific community.

     While there is no established definition of a "Healthy Community," communities should be better defined by comparing available resources among different areas.  This type of definition will help facilitate a comprehensive series of "Healthy Community" studies and initiatives that will generate empirical evidence that measures resource availability and will promote programs that engage key stakeholders and encourage investments in less healthy communities.