During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Co-Chairman of the Collaborative Impact for Decatur County, Billy Ward presented the Council with the two Georgias Initiative, which addresses health equity in Georgia.

The CIDC’s mission is to build a healthier community through partnership, inclusion, equity, collaboration and education. The CIDC received a $70,000 grant that is to be spent investigating the predominant reasons for health conditions to be more detrimental in rural areas, such as Bainbridge than in urban areas.

Ward said the Two Georgias Intiative in Atlanta gave the 11 counties with the most concerning health issues the grant.

Among the health issues, diabetes and obesity top the charts. Ward and his team at the CIDC are trying to reach the population through a survey to see where the issues stem from. They believe transportation is part of the issue and the afford ability of health care.

They want to engage the community to fill in the blanks where they don’t understand. They hope seniors and the disabled will also take part in the survey so they can figure out how to improve their quality of life and the activities they participate in.

“As a whole, we are trying to improve the health of Decatur County,” Ward said.

The CIDC currently estimates Bainbridge to have 21,000 residents, but they are hoping to get 10% of the population, 0r 2,100 people to fill out the survey. This survey represents the second part of the grant they are applying for, which will give them an additional $100,000 to fix the problems they establish from the survey.

The survey has to be turned in by January 31, otherwise their application will be deemed as incomplete.

Some things the CDC has already noticed in the survey is that 60% of residents do not believe there is a wide variety of recreational opportunities for people of all ages and levels of physical mobility.

Because of this statistic, the CDC is able to realize that with that additional grant they could look into building a wheelchair sports league or some other type of activity that is inclusive for people with limited mobility.

They’ve also noticed residents do not believe Bainbridge has safe well, lighted nature trails or adequate light on public streets and that can be something they strive to help with, so people can get out and run more or walk in nature.

They invite everyone to voice their opinion at www.surveymonkey.com/r/cidc_decatur and include any ideas they have of how to fix the diabetes and obesity rate the city is facing.