Monument Corridor receives $1 million grant

Posted on August 3, 2011 by jennifer

It’s official! Monument Community Partnership (MCP) and Healthy and Active Before 5 have received a $1 million, 3-year grant to promote healthy eating and active living in Concord’s Monument Corridor thanks to Kaiser Permanente through its fund established at the East Bay Community Foundation.

The goal of the grant is to work with folks living in the Monument Corridor community to eat better and move more… every day.

The Concord Monument Corridor HEAL project brings together a wonderful coalition of partners, including Contra Costa Health Services, First 5 Contra Costa, and Contra Costa Child Care Council.

We will work together on four specific goals over the next 3 years:

1. Decrease calorie consumption, especially sugar-sweetened beverages

2. Increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables

3. Increase physical activity in community settings, such as parks and safe routes for walking and biking

4. Increase physical activity in “institutional” settings, such as child care, schools and workplaces.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. We couldn’t be more excited.

We know childhood obesity is a critical issue. Kaiser’s generous support will help us improve access to healthier choices in this community. We anticipate seeing improvements in breastfeeding rates, increased physical activity, improved child care, better community nutritional environments and a more active neighborhood as a result of this project.” (Diane Dooley MD, HAB45 Chair)

Official press release: http://www.cchealth.org/press_releases/pdf/2011_08_monument_corridor.pdf

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Note: Monument Corridor HEAL project is part of a regional initiative. Other communities receiving $1 million HEAL grants are in San Francisco, Fresno, Modesto, Richmond, Santa Rosa, and South Sacramento. For more information on the HEAL grant, visit: www.kp.org/newscenter

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Delivering Change that Matters

Posted on July 5, 2011 by tonya

As residents of Contra Costa County ourselves, Brown·Miller Communications, Inc. is pleased to be working with Healthy and Active Before 5 and First 5 Contra Costa to develop a multi-year social marketing campaign to reduce childhood obesity in our own backyard. We are currently conducting extensive formative research, including key informant interviews, surveys and focus groups, as the first phase in developing a social marketing plan.

No one lives in a vacuum and, whether we like to admit it or not, our behaviors are shaped by a multitude of influencers. Social marketing embraces that reality, developing interventions aimed not only at the individual but more broadly at the people and environments that influence them.

Social marketing approaches are especially important when working with young children, since they have very limited ability to control their choices and environments. Instead, it’s important to impact the decisions of parents, family members, child care providers, pediatricians and others who influence their early behaviors. Not only does social marketing deliver impact, but it also provides the framework for sustainable behavior change.

Young children who are surrounded by positive, encouraging messages about nutrition are far more likely to develop lifelong healthy eating habits and behaviors that will withstand the barrage of marketing efforts they will face in coming years. What’s more, at this early age the limited core of influencers reduces the need for a far reaching and more expensive campaign that would be required for older children in order to reverse already ingrained poor habits. Among children under five, the environmental challenges are more easily controlled as well, since they are largely limited to home and day care settings, both of which have a vested interest in developing healthy children. That said, food and beverage corporations, anxious to capture the taste loyalties of early consumers,  have ramped up their own marketing efforts to this young audience, consequently, a social marketing campaign must also address the insidious marketing to very young children in television, product placements and computer games.

In the coming weeks we’ll work closely with the First 5 Contra Costa and the Healthy and Active Before 5 planning team to develop impactful messages that encourage adoption of healthier behaviors, as well as innovative strategies to support the dissemination and promotion of those messages to key audiences, influencers and policymakers.

Nicole Stivers,

Brown Miller Communications, Inc

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A fantastic opportunity!

Posted on April 27, 2011 by tonya

Wow, what would you do if you were offered a million dollars to create obesity prevention programs in your local community?

You can imagine the excitement of the B45 Executive Committee in February when Kaiser Permanente’s Healthy Eating Active Living program nominated us to participate in their HEAL Zones Initiative. Along with the Monument Community Partnership, our two groups have been working feverishly over the past 2 months to create a 3-year community action plan focused on Concord’s Monument Corridor.

The community action plan was submitted April 15, 2011 …and at this point, Kaiser and their amazingly talented evaluators are reviewing our work.  While we anticipate some suggested changes in the plan, it presently contains an impressive array of proposed strategies intended to reduce calorie consumption, increase fruits and vegetable consumption, and increase physical activity in both community and institutional settings.  Healthy and Active Before 5 proposed, and if approved, will guide the implementation of activities targeting children aged 0-5 years and their families.  Some of these lofty proposed projects impacting this age group include:

  • Create a breastfeeding friendly community, including developing and implementing baby-friendly policies at local health centers, childcare programs, schools and businesses.
  • Increase access to, and consumption of clean safe water in the Monument community.
  • Increase the utilization of Federal Nutrition programs, such as WIC, CalFresh and the Child and Adult Care Food program
  • Partner with local child care programs to improve the offering of healthy foods and beverages and increase active play for young children

All of these activities would be done in cooperation with the Monument Community Partnership, an organization that has had years of success working with local residents and inspiring advocacy and policy change to make a healthier community.  In writing our proposal, our work was guided by the Healthy and Active Before 5 action plan, as well as the successes of our “Pledge the Practice” initiative developed by and adopted by our Leadership Council. In almost all of the proposed activities, we used the resources and past experiences of Healthy and Active Before 5’s many partners, such as the Contra Costa Child Care Council, WIC, Contra Costa Health Services and First 5 Contra Costa.

In the end, we felt thankful to our local partners for inspiring examples of change within their organizations, and to Kaiser for giving us this opportunity. In the months ahead, we plan to work with our Leadership Council members to discover programs and interests that align with this Initiative. We see this project as a chance to pilot new programs that should reduce obesity rates for young children in this small geographic area.  If these projects work, who knows?  We hope to advance Healthy and Active Before 5’s mission to motivate healthy lifestyle changes throughout Contra Costa and make this a healthier place for all of our young children and families.

Diane Dooley, MD

Chair of Healthy & Active Before 5′s Executive Committee …and Pediatrician at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center

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Parents Groups take action with the help of First 5 Contra Costa

Posted on April 27, 2011 by tonya

One of the founding agencies involved in the creation of Healthy and Active Before 5, First 5 Contra Costa’s mission is to help young children grow up healthy, nurtured, and ready for school. With revenue from Proposition 10, a 50 cent tax on cigarettes, First 5 Contra Costa provides local health and education programs geared toward children aged 0-5.

First 5′s Regional Parent Education Group is one such program that teaches participants valuable skills in community leadership and advocacy. As part of the program, First 5 staff train parent volunteers in project management, leadership, community engagement and public speaking.  Currently, 150 Contra Costa parents are involved in the program, many of them low-income residents and half of them speak Spanish as their primary language.

Recognizing the negative health impact of childhood obesity and the need for more opportunities for young children to engage in play, Regional Parent Groups started a special project partnering with local parks and recreational facilities to provide low cost physical activity classes such as dance, aerobics and soccer.

Check out a video of a First 5 soccer class in Richmond, CA:

Thanks First 5 Contra Costa for your work in helping our children to grow up healthy and happy!

To learn more about Regional Parent Groups read an article featured in First 5 Contra Costa’s online newsletter here.

Download Regional Parent Group brochures to get more information on meetings in your area:

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