Welcome to New England City & Town
New England City & Town works to serve New England’s municipal leaders, professional staff, citizen volunteers, and others involved individually and as part of the various city, town, village, borough, plantation, and special district agencies, associations, and other organizations with news, information, ideas, critiques, encouragement, and other resources to assist them in serving well the people and communities they serve.
New England City & Town Blog Provides Idea Starters and Other Information
For a daily idea starter, as well as other items related to municipal government, please visit our weblog, New England City & Town News Notes. There is an option to subscribe to the blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
To access New England City & Town News Notes, please visit:
New England City & Town News Notes
Reflection Starter from Sam Adams
“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual – or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” – Samuel Adams, in the Boston Gazette, 1781 New England States Continue to Rate
Among Top Ten of Healthiest States
The 2011 edition of America’s Health Rankings shows the six New England states each made the top ten of the list of healthiest states this year.
The New England rankings are:
1 – Vermont
2 – New Hampshire
3 – Connecticut
5 – Massachusetts
8 – Maine
10- Rhode Island
This annual report, by the United Health Foundation, looks at four groups of health determinants:
- behaviors (including the everyday activities people do that affect personal health, including habits and practices people develop as individuals and families that have an effect on personal health and on utilization of health resources; these behaviors are modifiable with effort by the individual supported by community, policy, and clinical interventions),
- community and environment (which reflect the reality that the daily conditions in which people live have a great effect on achieving optimal individual health),
- public and health policies (indicative of the availability of resources to encourage and maintain health and the extent that public and health programs reach into the general population), and
- clinical care (reflecting the quality, appropriateness, and cost of the care received at doctors’ offices, clinics, and hospitals).
America’s Health Rankings is designed to combines individual measures of each of these determinants with the resultant health outcomes into one, comprehensive view of the health of a state. In addition, it discusses health-related influencing factors separately from health outcomes and provides related health, economic, and social information to present a comprehensive profile of the overall health of each state.
To access the complete report, please visit:
United Health Foundation: America’s Health Rankings
NVFC Releases Studyon Obesity in the Fire Service
The National Volunteer Fire Council, with support from the U.S. Fire Administration, recently partnered with the HOPE Health Research Institute to conduct a study on obesity in the fire service. With the growing epidemic of obesity throughout the country and in the fire service itself, this study is designed to be a resource for firefighters and emergency medical service personnel to learn more about the causes of the problem and what they can do to reverse this potentially life-threatening trend.
Addressing the Epidemic of Obesity in the United States Fire Service looks at the impact of obesity, the scope of obesity in the fire service, and why obesity has become an epidemic. The report also highlights innovative trends in nutrition and fitness that firefighters can utilize and presents recommendations for the fire service for combating obesity and increasing fitness.
To access the complete report, please visit:
NVFC: Addressing the Epidemic of Obesity in the United States Fire Service (2011)