Houston was once dubbed the fattest city in the nation, until former Mayor Lee Brown started the Get Lean program. Although, Houstonians initially lost weight through the Get Lean program,weight levels began to once again rise in the city. In response to this, Mayor Parker has launched the Healthy Houston ...
Read MoreThe food and beverage industry most aggressively targets low-income children from communities of color. Read this mother's story and about why she has decided to take action in the fight against "Big ...
Read MoreMAP-21 will merge resources from the Transportation Enhancement fund and Safe Routes to Schools fund into one new pool of funds called the Transportation Alternative fund. States will then allocate 50% of these funds to local metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) and 50% will be available for the state to spend on transportation projects at their own discretion. With the enactment of this new policy pedestrian and bike ways projects will have to compete with highway and road construction ...
Read MoreProjects in San Antonio, Texas and Chicago, Illinois, two cities largely populated by Latinos, were funded by Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) grants, to prevent obesity in neighborhoods with a high proportion of low-income and minority residents. Read more about, How to Help Parks Help City Residents, in this blog post from the Robert Wood Johnson ...
Read MoreThis article describes the latest developments in Complete Streets Policies across the nation. Essentially, a Complete Streets policy determines how the residing department of transportation authority will design streets and how transportation funds will be spent. According to the Complete Streets Coalition, of all the 488 policies in place, the city of Indianapolis has produced an exemplary model of what a true Complete Streets policy should look like. Additionally, this article summarizes the 10 principals that the Complete Streets Coalition considers to be most important in any Complete Streets policy. ...
Read MoreYoung Latinos like Pedro from the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative were inspired to make a difference in their community while attending the National Food & Fitness Youth gathering held in Boston. Youth from across the country gathered to share their thoughts and ideas on how they could be successful at bringing healthy changes to their community. Youth shared ideas for how they could bring food justice to their community and how they could use on-line tools to amplify their voice. See this Storify recap to learn about some of the thought provoking activities and discussions which took place at this meeting. Learn more about youth engagement and the non-profit, CANFIT, that organized this effort. ...
Read MoreThis slideshow presentation provides an overview for how the Active Living Research (ALR) group and Public Health Law Center have worked together and used research to inform policy. ALR produced research briefs on shared use and physical activity. The Public Health Law Center worked to craft policy guidance on liability and shared use; while the American Heart Association played a key role in advocating and building government relations with Mississippi legislators. Cities in Mississippi like Bolton & Tupelo and schools like Brown and Okolona Elementary are examples of shared use success! For more information on how to get started with shared use in Mississippi, check out The Best Practice Toolkit for Shared Use Agreements in ...
Read MoreA report produced by Food & Water Watch, describing the need for federal regulation of food marketed to children. The publication suggests that the government should lend greater authority to the FTC for placing food marketing restrictions on companies who produce junk food for children, that the FTC be allowed to create mandatory nutrition guidelines, that ads for unhealthy foods be limited, and that food companies should reformulate food products according to healthier ...
Read MoreThis is an announcement for an Earth Month "Re-paint & Re-Plant" event to be held on April 27, 2013 at the site of the future WAYS Reading and Fitness Park. ...
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