Growing Healthy Children
EXEMPLARY PRACTICES IN NUTRITION, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HUNGER IN AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS
The Center for Collaborative Solutions is proud to announce the publication of its new guide for afterschool programs:Developing Exemplary Practices in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Food Security in Afterschool Programs (PDF). This guide is designed to help afterschool program leaders and their partners combat the obesity epidemic facing our children and youth today in a systematic and effective way.
Obesity is the primary health problem facing our children and youth, and failure to deal with it in a meaningful way will have serious health consequences for them and major societal consequences. According to the California Health Department’s 2007 Obesity Prevention Plan, unless something is changed, a staggering one in three children born in the year 2000 will develop type 2 diabetes. And even more chilling, one in every two children born in the year 2000 who are racially or ethnically diverse will develop type 2 diabetes. Afterschool programs provide an environment that can make a tremendous difference to children across the state—because state funding focuses on low income schools and because afterschool programs have more flexibility than the regular school day, they provide excellent opportunities for addressing the most at-risk children.
This guide outlines six exemplary practices and indicator rubrics that programs can use to assess how they are doing in each of the six practice areas and to help them focus their attention on the areas they want to improve. The indicators will also help programs measure their improvement over time. The practices include establishing the vision; integrating nutrition and physical activity with youth development principles; providing exciting and meaningful learning experiences that integrate nutrition and physical activity into core activities; working closely with the community, families and the school as full partners; improving food security; and developing diversified funding to sustain a quality program over time.
The six practices were developed by CCS after initial research, focus group discussions, and consultation with a statewide stakeholders group of nutrition, physical activity, afterschool, education and other experts. Then a learning community of 11 afterschool programs, selected for their strong nutrition and physical activity focus, used the practices. Representatives from these afterschool programs have been meeting together over the past two years to strengthen their programs by learning from each other and other experts in the field. The meetings provided an opportunity to revise and improve the exemplary practices. With their input and the feedback from the statewide stakeholders group, CCS finalized the guide, which is now posted on this website and can be downloaded in its entirety.
The guide is part of CCS’ three-year initiative, Healthy Behaviors for Children and Families: Strengthening Afterschool Programs through Exemplary Nutrition, Physical Activity and Food Security Practices, funded by the California Nutrition Network for Healthy Active Families of the California Department of Health Services – using Food Stamp Program funds – and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
If you have questions or would like to learn more about the new Exemplary Practices Guide, please contact Kathy B. Lewis at CCS (kathyblewis@ccscenter.org or [916] 567-9911).
