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Take Action
"Decisions are made by those who show up." Learn what steps you can take now to promote an environment of healthy eating and active living in your neighborhood... |
Valley-area community members, agencies and organizations are working in cooperation and collaboration to support healthy eating and active living through policy, organizational, system and environmental changes. A Maricopa Childhood Obesity Community Action Plan is being developed and will be posted here. Action teams are forming in these domains (refer to The Issues):
- Built Environment
- Healthcare
- Child Care
- Schools
- Food Environment
If you are interested in joining one of these teams or in learning more about how you can take action for a healthier community, email us using this form Healthy Weight. Be sure to provide your name and contact information.
Children Can't Weight - Community Forum on Childhood Obesity Prevention - This event brought together over 75 community partners and advocates for networking and discussion around our community's assets, services, and local research efforts to form policy solutions for a healthy community. A closing "facilitated chaos" session generated outstanding insights from you and your colleagues on next steps forward. || More info
Maricopa Policy Training - A three day training that was attended by 69 persons. Nationally known speakers from the Prevention Institute (Larry Cohen and Sana Chehimi) and an internationally recognized walkability and transportation expert (Mark Fenton) conducted much of the training. The agenda was designed to solidify the elevated role that policy change can play in the prevention of chronic disease. Public health professionals, community-based organizations, healthcare providers, community design planners, K-12 schools, community advocates and others attended. || More info
Resources/Literature
- Obesity in the US
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Overweight and Obesity - Economic Consequences // www.CDC.gov
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American Academy of Pediatrics - Arizona Chapter // www.AZAAP.net
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Information on NAP SACC // www.napsacc.org
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Blueprint for Nutrition & Physical Activity // www.ASTPHND.org
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Public Health Association. At the Intersection of Public Health and Transportation: Promoting Healthy Transportation Policy.
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American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health. The Built Environment: Designing Communities to Promote Physical Activity in Children Policy Statement. Pediatrics 2009;123;1591-1598.
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Bell JF, Wilson JS, Liu GC. Neighborhood Greenness and 2-Year Changes in body Mass Index of Chilren and Youth. Am J Prev Med 2008;(6):547-553.
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Lee V, Mikkelsen, L, Srikantharajah, J, and Cohen L. Promising Strategies for Creating Healthy Eating and Active Living Environments. Oakland, CA: Prevention Institute, 2008.
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Mikkelsen LV, Srikantharajah J, Cohen L. Strategies for Enhancing the Built Environment to Support Healthy Eating and Active Living. Oakland, CA: Prevention Institute, 2008.
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Ninety-First Arizona Town Hall, October 28-31, 2007 Land Use: Challenges And Choices For The 21st Century Background Report
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, "Physical Activity Among Low-Income Children and Youth.
- The Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership has packaged these and other recommendations neatly in the Promising Strategies for Creating Healthy Eating and Active Living Environments and also Strategies for Enhancing the Built Environment to Support Healthy Eating and Active Living, both available at: http://www.convergencepartnership.org
- The American Academy of Pediatrics makes several recommendations in their Bright Futures series available here: http://brightfutures.aap.org/
- An excellent meta-analysis into healthy food access in the U.S. is: Larson NI, Story MT, Nelson MC. Neighborhood Environments: Disparities in Access to Healthy Foods in the U.S. Am J Prev Med 2009;36(1):74-81.