2003 Grants for Healthy Youth Projects

The purpose of Grants for Healthy Youth was to develop and evaluate community-level strategies to prevent overweight and obesity in children and adolescents. Recipients of the 2003 Grants for Healthy Youth completed their projects in 2004. These projects built local capacity and leveraged future funding for promoting and supporting healthy communities in Washington State.

The goals of this project were to increase student access to healthful food and beverages in public schools and out-of-school programs and to increase awareness of childhood obesity and the importance of environmental approaches to prevention. The Children’s Alliance of Seattle worked with three pilot middle schools in Ellensburg, Olympia, and Snohomish school districts to increase student access to healthy food and beverages. In each school, committees of various stakeholders were formed to assess the nutrition and physical activity environments using the School Index. From the assessments, priority actions were identified and implemented. Information on childhood obesity and environmental and policy approaches to prevention was presented at ten conferences over the course of the year.

The Child Care Health Program staff of Public Health-Seattle & King County (PHSKC) provided four training conferences for child care providers, demonstrating simple and easy-to-implement changes to increase physical activity opportunities and healthy eating among the children in the programs. Some of the simple nutrition changes made included switching to 1% milk, serving healthier crackers, serving low-sugar cereals, and adding more fruits and vegetables to their menus. Changes to physical activity programs included incorporating activity games into their morning clean-up routines and having a group game day once a week.

Spokane Regional Health District , Washington State University Cooperative Extension, and partners in Spokane held two conferences for parents and children on the obesity epidemic. Parents then joined one of six GNATs to develop projects to improve children’s choices in healthy food and physical activity. Each GNAT planned and implemented a community project . Their projects were: Walk Your Child to School Day, breastfeeding advocacy training, Family Fun Fair, a community garden, a skate park, and plans to develop a playground accessible to children with developmental disabilities.

The Washington State University Cooperative Extension in Clark County coordinated the project Eat and Play 4 Health. They trained middle school students to be mentors for elementary school children from Marshall Elementary school, the Parsley Center ’s Impacting Kids First , and The Boys and Girls Club of Southwest Washington. The overall goal of the project was to teach elementary and middle school students how to select healthy after-school snacks and how to participate in fun physical activities instead of playing video games and watching TV. In addition to accomplishing this goal, an excellent partnership was created with The Boys and Girls Club of Southwest Washington.