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Welcome to the first installment of the Healthy City Fall River Blog. This forum provides an opportunity to expand on and link the mission of HCFR with other health and other fields that affect the well being of those who live and work in Fall River.

We invite you to send us your comments on what is posted here and to post your own. Let the conversation begin!

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March 5, 2007

Last week (February 26), Mass INC and the Brookings Institution, two well known think tanks, released a report Reconnecting Massachusetts Gateway Cities: Lessons Learned and an Agenda for Renewal. 

The communities written about in the report are those that often serve as gateways to immigrants and other newcomers to Massachusetts, attracted by lower housing costs and growing communities of newcomers from similar cultural backgrounds.

The report provided some statistics and additional insight that confirmed something we’ve known for a long time – that Massachusetts’ old mill cities such as Fall River, New Bedford, and nine other – are struggling economically compared to the Greater Boston. 

The manufacturing jobs that were the base of the Fall River economy for most of the twentieth century have been moving elsewhere.  This trend continues as we watch the sad decline of Quaker Manufacturing. 

Other challenges faced by these cities include lower education attainment and fewer residents who graduated from college, which make it more difficult for Fall River to make the transition from a manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy.

But the report also cites a number of strengths – technology firms are moving here and housing costs remain lower than other parts of the state.

Our challenge as a community is to build on these strengths and respond to the economic challenges in a proactive way.  On February 28 Healthy City Fall River hosted a forum focused on the issues of adult basic education, job training and employment.  The two-hour session illuminated both the accomplishments of the past few years in addressing these issues as well as some of the challenges that lie ahead.  We learned about a range of programs currently operating in the city that provide adult basic education, youth training, and lifelong learning opportunities.

A healthy city is one where people come together to make their community better for themselves and others.  Fall River does not shy away from its challenges.  If you look around you’ll find that we have a lot we can build on to realize our vision of a healthy city in the future.

For more information or to download a copy of the Gateway Cities report click here.