LUMBERTON — Along with Southeastern Regional Medical Center’s new name, Southeastern Health, comes a new tagline: Better Health — Starting with You.

As a way to jump start this path to better health in our communities, Southeastern will host two community meetings before the end of the year, one in Red Springs and one in Fairmont. The goal of these events is to listen closely to the community and relay the vision and ideas for improving health in our region to SRMC’s board of trustees during a strategic planning meeting in early 2013.

“It is our hope that energetic leaders who are concerned about the health of their communities will attend these events so that we may fully understand the current health status of the communities we serve,” SRMC President/CEO Joann Anderson said. “They are encouraged to bring forth ideas that will begin to move individuals and communities to better health.”

The first community meeting will be held Oct. 30 at Providence Place at 702 E. Third Ave.in Red Springs. The second is scheduled for Nov. 13 at the Fairmont-South Robeson Heritage Center located at 207 S, Main St. Both events will offer refreshments and networking opportunities beginning at 6:30 p.m.; the feedback portion of the meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m. Each event will include small group discussions on local health issues as well as a larger group discussion on the impact of health in each community and a review of barriers and unique strengths related to improving health.