April 2014 Question #3
Research suggests that parenting styles and the overall family environment plays a role in childhood overweight/obesity. You have the opportunity to develop an initiative focused on engaging families in the community in leading healthier lifestyles. What would your initiative be, how would it work, and what strategies would you employ to promote it?
posted by Unknown @ 10:53 AM
26 comments
26 Comments:
First, I would reach out to these families through school districts. I would find a large open area in the community that would be willing to host meetings/event. I would organize committees with family members leading and participating to increase self-efficacy and empowerment. I would help them begin a huge garden project or fresh favs program or both. This would be a great way for families to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables that are healthy for them. I would also encourage a physical fitness committee that would organize activities like hikes or yoga. This would not only benefit these families by increasing their health, but also it would give them a support network.
Research suggests that parenting styles and the overall family environment plays a role in childhood overweight/obesity. You have the opportunity to develop an initiative focused on engaging families in the community in leading healthier lifestyles. What would your initiative be, how would it work, and what strategies would you employ to promote it?
I like Jessica's idea about reaching out to families through the school districts because this is an easy way to recruit the family population. Finding a public building such as a church or community center is where I would organize healthy cooking demonstrations. Sending out a recipe each week and having everyone bring one food item would help reduce costs and we could make meals for the week. Teaching nutrition education along with cooking would be beneficial for the community and give them new skills. Starting community sports leagues based on population interest would also be fun! It could involve the entire family and get people active.
I would start by attending parent-teacher associations and presenting the idea to parents who hold some leverage within the school system. By gaining the support of a few parents and beginning educational opportunities to encourage parents to employ healthy strategies in their homes, I would hope to gain a following of additional parents. I think making a big change in a community must start small, and it is important to gain the acceptance of a few individuals and letting the word of mouth spread until more and more parents want to get involved. Funding would be very small for this initiative, but hopefully as it grows in popularity, it could turn into a bigger project and affect many families in the community.
I would focus my efforts on a community gardening project. Ideally, this garden would be located within city limits and even, perhaps, close to a park. I would then encourage my participants to walk or bike to the garden to increase their physical activity. I'd also like to get the families involved with meal prep by implementing food demonstrations and cooking classes relative to the foods growing in the garden. My key message would be that living healthfully is a series of small choices and that choosing to walk over driving, choosing fresh produce over processed, and choosing home-made meals over restaurant selections are a few small choices that make a big impact!
I really like Susan and Jessica's emphasis on reaching out to influential parents in the district. A grassroots movement where marketing is by word-of-mouth is cost-effective and likely to making a lasting impact.
I too would choose a community garden. If I was lucky their would be a grant opportunity for the funding of the project. Sending flyers home with the school kids and speaking at community forums would be a great way to promote the project and volunteers. I would ask the community to vote on a central location. Hopefully it would be at a church or school where there is water and kitchen area available. Cooking demos and recipe tastings could be held periodically during harvest. If the garden became big enough, it could then be open to the public to come pick what they please. It would be great if the local newspaper could get involved and provide free advertising of recipes to the community. The recipes would help the families gain some ideas for healthy meals. I would hope that if people are benefiting from free produce, they would donate some of their time to maintain the garden too.
I really like the idea of encouraging people to walk or ride their bike to school or the garden to show that simple steps to get moving are what’s important! I would also go through the school to organize cooking demonstrations because it’s one thing to know what the healthy options are, but it’s another thing to be able to prepare and/or store them. Lastly, I like the idea of starting a program similar to fresh FAVs as a way to get fresh fruits and vegetables to people at a lower cost.
I like the idea of doing something like a Biggest Loser family challenge, but it doesn't necessarily have to be for weight loss. Families in the community could compete for a prize to see who could make the most positive lifestyle changes. This could be the most minutes of exercise each week, the most new veggies or recipes tried, the most pounds lost (if weight loss needed) etc. It would be a 10 week program and families would check in each week. Their progress would be tracked on a poster each family team creates. Before they start, I would have several education sessions including a grocery store tour & a cooking demonstration to help them learn to implement healthier cooking strategies. Barriers would be addressed each week and they would be able to call in if they were struggling with something.
Lynetta & Carly, I like the idea of promoting active transport to a community garden - killing two birds with one stone! Sammy, I also like the idea of a fresh FAVs program at a community center so that these families would have improved access to fruits & veggies.
Glad to hear everybody pushing for gardens! I think Brady and I are in charge of a popular project this year!
Like many of you have noted, a community garden would be a great way to get the entire family involved. This will likely be extremely rewarding for the kids as they will be able to eat the food the they have had a hand in growing. Another possible idea is for community dietitians work together with a large organization (such as the YMCA) and create a program for families in the communities. This program would have a healthy eating aspect that the dietitians would be in charge of as well as a physical activity aspect that the Y would be in charge of. This program would provide weekly education, a place for the families to participate in physical activity everyday, as well as events they may participate in on the weekends such as a grocery store tour or a large softball game involving all of the families involved in the program. This program would need grant money to get it started.
I would definitely try to reach out to families via the school districts. As many have pointed out, that would probably be the most effective recruitment tool. Churches and/or local meeting centers like a town hall/library (that's where everything was in my hometown) would be the best place to meet on a bi-monthly basis or so. We could discuss a different aspect of healthy living at each session with topics like grocery shopping, label reading, portion control, physical activity, community gardens etc. Additionally, I would make the presentation and/or associated information available online so that those who aren't in attendance can find it and use the information.
Hopefully, using the schools as our recruitment resource, we could get a large amount of interest to spread the wealth around the community. Once engagement is high enough, I really like the idea of starting events like softball games (maybe even a charity event that donates to the local food pantry or something similar). The ultimate goal would be to make everything educational and informative but also very fun and engaging. This will keep attendance high and also be the most sure-fire way to ensure the community is getting the most out of the program(s).
I would try to get a grant and sponsors to offer free family cooking classes. This would allow me to teach healthy cooking methods but also give the families time to bond. It could also be a free dinner "out". We could even have some classes outside and teach campfire cooking. I think this would be a great incentive for families to come to and hopefully learn some good habits in the process.
I love the idea for a community garden. This will allow children to understand where food comes from. It may also convince families to try to start a backyard garden at their own homes.
I like everyone's idea of gardening projects, but that will only be successful if you can really get everyone involved and helping. I think Jess's idea of reaching families through school would be really great because you can reach a big number of families with children specifically. I think Aria's idea of a friendly competition would be good too, especially if the prizes are something the families could really use and benefit from. I think there's definitely ways to help incorporate local businesses to promote a healthier lifestyle. Possibly, through events, fundraising, and donations.
My initiative would involve the YMCA or another similar community organization. Currently for my graduate assistantship at the YMCA, I work with overweight children and their parents where they have weekly sessions to be physically active, and then they are provided nutrition education.
In my new initiative I would expand this to all children and their parents. Opening the program to include all children could help prevent children from becoming overweight or obese in the first place.
For my initiative I would have children and their parents meet at least once a week for a session in physical activity and then they would have a nutrition lesson. I would involve exercise experts and dietitians in the program. The physical activity would focus on team-building, so sports like basketball or fun group activities like Zumba and dancing could be done. Then the dietitians would provide a different nutrition lesson each week on different topics. Incorporating nutrition into games that get the children physically active is a fun way for children to learn. Also including parents would be beneficial, because hopefully parents will reinforce their children to engage in healthy habits when they are at home. Each week the children would be given a specific goal to complete during the week, and at their next session we would discuss their progress. For example one goal could be to eat at least three servings of vegetables per day. To promote my initiate I would use flyers and social media like Facebook. I would also try to get schools involved and send flyers home with students.
Everyone’s suggestions for community gardens are great! I also really like Erin’s idea of free family cooking classes. It would be a fun way for families to learn new and healthy recipes. If the family did this instead of going out to eat at a restaurant they would save money and probably also consume fewer calories, fat, and sodium by not eating unhealthy restaurant meals.
If money or resources were not an issue, I would love to provide the families with an easy and quick cooking class. The families would prepare a meal or snack together that features a special ingredient at each meeting (ex: whole grain, fruit or vegetable in season at the time). After eating, there would be an activity that involved a game or a fun exercise that a family can do all together inside their home. This would be focused on the family doing activities together, provide a little education on a healthier food item, and teach them to be active together.
I love the idea of starting a garden because this would provide healthy foods and increase physical activity. I would be hesitant because of the lack of safe neighborhoods around the area where these families live. I do like Aria's healthy challenge idea. By competing in these challenges, families will be encourage to do things together and bond.
I think an initiative focused on teaching families how to cook would be great. Even better would be combining a community garden with a family cooking program. It would get them involved in multiple aspects of a healthy lifestyle: activity, being outdoors, spending time together as a family, and preparing fresh vegetables. This would get the family outside as a group, learning to appreciate fresh produce, and also teaching them all how to prepare fresh, healthy foods. Promoting a program like this for the summer months would be great because so many parents struggle with how to entertain their kids while they are out of school. Getting info about this out into the schools and the places that parents frequent with their kids would be ideal.
I agree with what a lot of people have said and I would try to partner with another organization such as the school district or YMCA.
I think gardening provides a great way to demonstrate many healthy hobbies; growing food, preparing fresh food, family activity, etc etc.
Anna J. said:
I definitely would not want parents to feel guilty so I would try to be as positive as possible. I think most parents want the best for their kids, so helping to educate parents on the importance of healthy eating, exercise, and preventing overweight/obesity by teaching simple, specific, and attainable goals to make changes could be helpful. Encouraging the parents to lead by example and providing education of specific nutrition and fitness tools such as recipe ideas, healthy shopping and cooking techniques, and exercise opportunities. Maybe hosting a 5K walk to raise awareness of a healthy lifestyle or working to build a community of parents who can support each other in making healthy food and exercise choices. It does seem like the schools would be a great way to initially contact parents.
Anna J. said:
I like Brady's idea of starting a cooking program. I think that both the kids and parents would have fun and learn a lot working together to cook healthy foods! Maybe it would even be a cooking program where parents would leave with a couple of meals for the next week already prepared.
As mentioned before, unsafe neighborhoods can be an issue. For neighborhoods fairly close to the school, some are dissuaded from walking. The initiative I would start is a neighborhood walk/bike to school. Willing parents would switch off going with the children to and from school. It allows all participants to get exercise and develops strong community bonds. Having such programs really does bring families together in effort to make more neighborhoods safe and it promotes healthy living.
Besides community gardens, I like Beth's idea of the dietitians working with the YMCA to help reach families about healthy eating.
I like Jessica's idea of starting a program like Fresh FAVs. The people who are part of the program would need to volunteer some time to keep the program working. The program could share healthy recipes that use some of the produce provided, and possibly cooking demonstrations. The food could come from a vendor, like Fresh FAVS, or from a garden maintained by the participants.
I would develop a competition for families with weekly challenges for increasing fruits and vegetables, drinking water, getting enough sleep, physical activity and other habits to support health and wellness. This challenge could be in conjunction with school districts/classes/grades or more community based. I would also see out supporters for prizes and other incentives for people to continue to work hard for these challenges and offer support for ideas, weight loss and healthy eating tips, and any other support families may need throughout the time period to increase successful outcomes.
I like Aria's idea of a family challenge. You could offer a variety of steps toward positive changes like exercise minutes, gardening, new foods tasted, cooking skills learned or recipes tried to earn points or prizes, and tailor it to whatever issues each family has.
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