Following up on more than a year of strategic data collection and analysis, Together! Healthy Knox (T!HK) held a special meeting of community leaders Thursday morning to announce its Action Plan Summary. More than 150 people gathered at the East Tennessee History Center to learn how the plan will be implemented beginning January 2013.

“I’ll be the first to ask you today to pledge your commitment to this effort,” said Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett. “We live in a great community, but we all know that we face some challenges when it comes to health. We need to pull together – business, non-profit, schools, faith groups, government, and community members – to make our community healthier. The Together! Healthy Knox folks have spent years gathering sound data and making a plan. Now it’s time to put the plan in motion.”

A similar event in May 2011 revealed what the group had identified as Knox County’s most pressing health issues. At that time, T!HK invited like-minded community members to get involved with creating action teams to help tackle the issues. The resounding positive community response resulted in three action teams with representatives from more than 50 community organizations and agencies that have worked together for the past year to create an action plan.

Knox County Health Department launched Together! Healthy Knox in April 2009, to provide a framework for bringing together the individuals, groups and organizations involved in health and quality of life issues in the county, and to provide guidance for identifying and taking action on priority health issues.

For more information about Together! Healthy Knox and to view the research reports, visit www.healthyknox.org