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At Center Point United Baptist Church in Lincoln County, West Virginia, 18 parishioners are feeling lighter than they did 11 weeks ago — 250 pounds lighter, to be exact. And it’s thanks, in part, to the 2010 County Health Rankings. The weight-loss group, the brainchild of the church’s associate pastor Jason Cook, is just one example of the small-scale health-improvement efforts taking place in the community in the wake of the rankings.

In Atlanta, one of the many places staff at the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness looked to improve health was in their own backyard. For years, a group of older, vagrant men loitered in an empty lot near the health department, but were completely disconnected from it and the services it offered especially for this vulnerable population—such as health screenings, smoking cessation assistance, and drug and alcohol treatment programs.

In rural Durant, MS, a group of committed leaders and residents knew what they wanted for their community of 2,600 people. They wanted to bring new businesses and jobs to the community. They wanted better schools. They wanted residents to feel safe.

There is a sense of loss in Rockingham County, NC. Historically, the community had a robust economy that was largely built on the textile and tobacco industries. In the mid-90s, Rockingham lost their tobacco industry and not long after that lost their textile industry. “We went from being a wealthy county to being a poor county very quickly...

To increase physical activity in a rural region with high rates of unemployment and poverty, and lots of snow, Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula Health Department created the Copper County Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities partnership. This partnership increased opportunities for active transportation through a Complete Streets policy, Safe Routes to School, and improved bicycle and walking...

Wyandotte County, Kansas has made significant strides toward achieving public health since it finished in the bottom of the 2010 Kansas County Health Rankings.

Starke County, Indiana, is a rural county that is home to 23,197 people. Despite Starke County’s small size, it’s also a community that is working hard to improve the health of the community and everyone in it by using County Health Rankings data. In 2011, Starke County was ranked 91st out of 92 counties in Indiana. An Indiana community health center, HealthLinc, noticed...