The BC Healthy Living Alliance Wants You To Vote Healthy!
Spent the evening going on a lovely walk with some fellow bloggers and some peeps from the BC Healthy Living Alliance (BCHLA). It was a really neat idea – with an eye to the upcoming provincial election, the BCHLA hosted a blogger walk in their neighbourhood, where they pointed out some features in the ‘hood that facilitate, or are barriers to, a healthy lifestyle – things like whether there’s easily accessible park space for kids to play in, bike lanes, walkable streets, stores that sell fresh produce and affordable childcare spots. (For that last one, btw, the answer is pretty much “no” – for every five kids under the age of six in BC, there is only one space in regulated child care… and even if you are lucky enough to get that one space, you probably can’t afford it because the cost of childcare is crazy!)
The take home message I took from the walk was that while it’s all well and good to educate people about eating healthy, being physically active and the like, there are often barriers, sometimes things we don’t even really think about, that prevent people from putting what they know into action.
And that’s where the link to the upcoming election comes in. The BCHLA has a “Vote Healthy” initiative – basically, a top 10 list of things that they feel the government should be working on to promote healthy living and remove barriers that prevent people from being able to make healthy choices… things like making affordable housing more available, increasing access to fruits & veggies, and investing in health promotion/disease prevention. And they have a bunch of resources – like links to sample questions you might want to ask at an all-candidates meeting or sample letters you can send to politicians – on their website. You should go check out their website.
…
So, I’ve now written – and deleted – three different endings to this blog posting. Somehow I think I’m waaay too tired to compose anything that remotely sounds like a good ending. That is all.
Comments |2|
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Lack of child care is a huge problem. I have two good friends who’ve left Vancouver in the last year, largely because they couldn’t get day care and had to move back closer to family.
Cath@VWXYNot?’s last blog post..Celebrity Apprentice
Thanks for joining us last night Beth! It was nice meeting you. This is a great blog post and you’ve really captured our message well.
Sincerely,
Peeps from the BCHLA