N.C. Institute for Public Health’s Active Living By Design to manage new RWJF awards

Families bicycle together in an urban setting

Nine communities across the United States have been awarded up to $400,000 each by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to lead an ambitious effort to reverse the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic. The program, part of a $44 million initiative, is managed by the University of North Carolina’s Active Living By Design.

Active Living By Design was established in 2001 as a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is part of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. 

The program, Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities, will support comprehensive local approaches that increase opportunities for physical activity and access to healthy, affordable foods for children and families. The goal is to transform policy and support environmental changes that can be replicated and sustained in communities across the nation.

 The program is a major part of RWJF’s five-year, $500 million commitment to reverse the obesity epidemic in the United States by 2015. Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities builds upon Active Living By Design’s past successes working with community-based initiatives. In addition to their prior successes with 25 national Active Living by Design program grantees, the UNC-based organization has provided support to nearly 40 North Carolina communities. “Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities will be a cornerstone of our work into the next decade,” said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, MBA, RWJF president and chief executive officer. “It’s one of the largest community-action programs ever supported by the Foundation and one that holds great potential for changing many people’s lives.”

The sites chosen to lead this initiative are urban and rural, large and small. They include Chicago; Columbia, Mo.; Louisville, Ky.; Seattle; Somerville, Mass.; Washington, D.C.; and Baldwin Park, Central Valley and Oakland in California. Through partnerships of neighborhood associations, nonprofit organizations and public agencies, all sites are pursuing an array of strategies to reshape their communities and promote active living and healthy eating – from farmers’ markets in public schoolyards, to community gardens, new bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks, healthier corner stores and even a pedestrian-only boulevard on weekends. 

Sarah Strunk

“The transformation of these communities will provide the rest of the nation clear direction on how we must change the environment around us to support children’s health rather than be a barrier to healthy behaviors,” said Active Living By Design director Sarah Strunk, MHA. “It also relies upon the power of community partnerships working toward a common vision.” The nine communities will receive four-year grants to broaden or accelerate changes already underway. In each, special emphasis is being placed upon reaching children who are at greatest risk of obesity because of their income, race or ethnicity. Seattle’s partners, for example, will focus on engaging young immigrant families in four public housing developments across King County. Part of Louisville’s work will concentrate on a corner-store strategy in a dozen primarily African-American neighborhoods. The city of Washington, D.C., plans to establish a “saturation index” of unhealthy food vendors to help tackle obesity and overweight in two lower-income wards.  As these leading sites move forward, so does the next phase of Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities. On Dec. 3, RWJF released a call for proposals for the second round of funding under the program. In December 2009, it will award four-year grants of up to $360,000 to about 60 communities. The deadline for brief proposals is Feb. 3. Partnerships from across the United States and its territories are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to applicants from communities in 15 states where the prevalence of or risk for childhood obesity is particularly high: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.  Visit www.healthykidshealthycommunities.org to download the call for proposals and obtain additional information, including profiles of each leading community and its plans for change.  Complete details also are available at www.rwjf.org/childhoodobesity. 

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.