The Be Healthy School Grant Program will make $250,000 of money available for up to 25 schools to be awarded $10,000 grants from the 2016-2017 school year. This Blue Cross Blue Shield grant program allows schools across the state of Alabama, who enroll students in grades K through sixth and apply into the Healthy School Grant Program, a chance to implement school-based health and wellness programs that increase exercise, nutrition and parental involvement throughout the school year. Grant requests and applications will be accepted from now to March and schools considered for grant dollars schools must be located in Ala., serve students in grades K-6, and be public, private or non-profit. Only schools can be awarded the grant dollars, those not supported are for profit schools, ...
On August 11, 2015, the City of Reading, Pennsylvania, Executive Office of the Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer passed a comprehensive Complete Streets executive order to be effective immediately. A Complete Streets approach integrates the needs of people and place in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of transportation networks. Every year, the National Complete Streets Coalition examines, scores, and ranks newly passed Complete Streets policies. Among the Best Complete Streets Policies of 2015, the city of Reading, PA (58.1% Latino) came in first. In fact, Reading scored the first perfect score of 100. National Complete Streets Coalition congratulates communities, like Reading, for their work making streets safer, and for showing other communities across ...
As reported by the Long Beach Press-Telegram, a community-based think tank in Long Beach, Calif. (42% Latino population) detailed in a new report how the city is facing economic troubles along ethnic and geographic lines. According to the report entitled “Long Beach Equity Atlas: Geographical Opportunity” by ReThinking Greater Long Beach, poverty among children and adults is concentrated in communities of ethnic and racial minorities, specifically in the south central and west areas while wealth is concentrated in the areas populated mostly by whites in the north central and east side of Long Beach. “The rate of poverty will increase, and we will reach a point where the reserves of the city will be at such a drain ... we will have to go to bankruptcy,” said Alex J. Norman, a ...
The National Park Service's (NPS) Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program is working with doctors, healthcare providers, and other local organizations as part of the Healthy Parks Healthy People (HPHP); Greater Washington Area Initiative (DC, VA, MD, and WV) to connect physicians with ParkRx. ParkRx (Park Prescriptions) are programs designed in collaboration among public land agencies, healthcare providers, and community partners to encourage people to utilize parks, trails, and open space for the purpose of improving individual and community health. Doctors use a prescription pad to actually prescribe park time outdoors in nature or in a park. Park prescriptions can improve their health-physical and mental-and create a generation of lifelong park stewards. Since 2013, ...
Many cities across the country are informing their citizens about the importance of healthy beverage consumption and being aware of the health risks associated with consuming sugary beverages. The "Rethink Your Drink" campaign encourages people to drink more water and fewer sugary beverages, and helps educate people about healthier beverage options. The city of Evanston, Ill. is working on helping inform citizens to "sip their way to better health" by launching the ReThink Your Drink Campaign on April 21st, 2016. Leaders of the community in health will raise glasses of fruit and or herb-infused water and pledge to drink more water. Dr. Chehab will also present to all attendees the amounts of sugar hidden in popular beverages.
About 22 percent of Latino high-school students ...
Students across the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), participated in the Healthy Schools Campaign healthy cooking contests. Students were challenged to create a nutritious lunch that includes fresh fruit and vegetables, meets USDA nutrition guidelines, be under 760 calories and costs less than $1.70. The challenge allows students to win a chance to represent Los Angeles across the state and serve the model meal in an all-expenses paid Cooking up Change competition in the capitol. The winner could go on from there to serve the meal to congress and become a model meal for schools across the country. Having healthy options and creative ways to get kids involved in creating healthy meals is a innovative way to change school food environments. Studies show that when ...
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Latinos have different degrees of health risks, including a 50% higher death rate from diabetes, a 23% more chance of obesity, a 24% chance poorly controlled high blood pressure, and Latinos are less likely to be screened for health issues. To meet the unique health care needs of the Latino population in northeast New Jersey, the Clara Maass Medical Center and the Newark Beth Israel Medical Center have each launched programs aimed at improving Latino health. Clara Maass Medical Center has established the Center for Excellence for Latino Health, while Newark Beth Israel Medical Center has created the Hispanic Health Outreach Program. The Hispanic Health Outreach Program was designed to raise awareness about the health ...
Members of Minnesotans for Healthy Kids Coalition, a statewide coalition of around 25 organizations that work on policies to help address childhood obesity, gathered together in March to purpose a healthy food access bill for the many people who are facing little to no healthy food access in Minnesota. According to a 2011 project from the Trust for American's Health and the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, 14 percent of children ages 10 to 17 were obese in Minn. The coalition talked with several steak holders about what should be included in a bill for healthy food access for Minn. and many wanted the Dept. of agriculture to house the loans, technical assistance and felt the state could house the program with ten million dollars a year, in the form of loans grants or technical ...
This March, Grow Hartford Youth, a youth led group that works to give youth a voice, launched the "10 Slices of Justice" campaign for Hartford Public Schools in the downtown Hartford Public Library. The launch was held within the Hartford Arts & Activism Fair, where youth stood up with their campaign to help discuss solutions for problems they see within their school lunches, like small portion size, and quality of lunches. The campaign was all youth led, and where students were able to talk about what were the issues in their school lunches. They discussed the points of the "10 Slices of Justice" campaign, including changes they wanted to see like bigger portions, better quality foods made from scratch, variety of local options, culturally appropriate foods, and more ...
