The Manhattan Beach City Council unanimously approved the city’s participation in the Vitality City initiative, a cutting-edge, three-year program aimed at measurably improving the health of beach city residents.
Manhattan Beach, along with Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach, will be the next Vitality City, bringing a team of the nation’s top health experts into the three beach cities to design and implement well-being improvements for the community.
“I see a lot of benefits coming out of this,” Councilmember Nick Tell said.
The innovative preventative health program is led by Healthways, which last week selected Beach Cities Health District to help launch the ambitious campaign in the beach cities.
Healthways will contribute $3.5 million in value to the initiative, with another $1.8 million kicked in by BCHD.
While Manhattan Beach will not pay into the program directly, council members committed to assigning 20 percent of the city’s environmental program manager’s time to the initiative.
As a Vitality City, the beach cities will receive access to Gallop polls to measure results of the program and employer access to online information regarding employee wellness.
After an initial 110 day assessment period, Healthways will begin working with the community to implement the three-year program.
The council expressed a desire to spread the knowledge gained from the program to nearby under-served cities.
“Anything we can do to help the health of our residents and help out our neighbors we should do,” said Mayor Richard Montgomery. ER
