Making Osceola work well for everyone

Healthy, thriving places grow where people find it easy and enjoyable to live, work, and play. That is the need and opportunity at the core of Osceola’s Healthy Places for Healthy People (HP2) plan.

Implementation is getting underway with projects including an Osceola Walks! event, Riverfront Days, tourism marketing, and beginning work on child care and housing action plans. Check out the full plan here.

Osceola’s HP2 plan is a framework for local action. It addresses necessities, such as childcare, and amenities, such as walking trails. It is based on local priorities and ideas gathered over a two-day process October 16 and 17, 2018.

Osceola was one of six communities nationally in 2018 to receive HP2 planning assistance. The plan details action steps to advance four shared goals.

Action Plan Goals
1. Walkability: Make Osceola a place where it is easy to grow up and grow old, by improving sidewalks and trails in downtown and surrounding neighborhoods for the benefit of all, including
those on foot, wheelchair, and bike.

2. Tourism: Build on tourism opportunities by tying downtown Osceola into existing and future trails and other recreational assets in the region.

3. Housing and Child Care: Increase availability for safe and affordable housing and child care so all residents have the opportunity to live healthy, fulfilling lives.

4. Connectivity: Develop a plan to improve high speed internet access in Osceola to improve economic opportunity for businesses and to increase access to education, healthcare, and other
essential services for residents.

Steering committee members invite area residents and groups to join in the ongoing Healthy Places for Healthy People effort!

Steering Committee: City of Osceola, Golden Valley Medical-Osceola, Osceola Optimists, Osceola K-12 Schools, Care Connection, Osceola Community Chamber of Commerce, St. Clair County Library, Friends of the St. Clair County Senior Center, CMH, St. Clair County Health Department, New Growth/West Central Missouri Community Action Agency, St. Clair County Economic Development.

For more information, contact:
Teresa Heckenlively, St. Clair County Economic Development, 417-309-1786, theckenlively @kaysinger.com
Patty Cantrell, New Growth/West Central MO CAA, Tel: 417-646-6900, pcantrell @newgrowthmo.org

More here about the national Healthy Places for Healthy People program.

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