Northern Virginia Healthy Kids Coalition

HealthWorks PALS: Pediatric Healthy Active Living Center

Childhood obesity is a growing health concern in the Loudoun County community. To address this concern, HealthWorks of Northern Virginia has developed PALS: Pediatric Healthy Active Living Center.

HealthWorks for Northern Virginia is a trio of community health centers located in: Leesburg, Sterling and Herndon, Virginia. Formerly Loudoun Community Health Center, The Health Center for Children & Families, and the Jeanie Schmidt Free Clinic. HealthWorks represents expansion to meet the growing need for quality health care.

The PALS team consists of pediatricians, counselors, a registered dietician certified in weight management, and family education and fitness. The PALS program is committed to provide access through best-practice multi-disciplinary services to children and families.

• 40% of HealthWorks patients under the age of 5, and 50% of patients between the ages of 6 and 17 are at or above the 85th percentile for BMI (overweight or obese)
• About 25% of patients aged 2 to 17 are above the 95th percentile (obese).
• Target childhood obesity in current HealthWorks families as well as reaching out to other similarly high risk, low-income families in Northern Virginia

At our January 2014 Steering Committee Meeting we had the pleasure of learning more about the program from Dr. Janine Rethy, MD, MPH, FAAP, IBCLC, Director Community Medicine at HealthWorks and Julie Leopold, RD, PALS nutritionist. For the presentation please click here>>>. To learn more about HealthWorks of Northern Virginia please click here>>>.

 

Students who are healthy and fit will come to school ready to learn

Fairfax’s School Health Program was established in 1956 by a collaborative agreement between the Fairfax County Health Department and the Fairfax County Public Schools. The goal of the school health program is to maximize the health potential of school-age children by providing health support services in the school setting. The school health program has expanded and evolved as the County has grown and the needs of the community have changed. Certain health activities are mandated in the Code of VA, but School Health Services, as a program, is not mandated in Virginia, therefore each school district develops its own service delivery model.

In addition to the provision of direct health services, the Health Department has implemented a Health Promotion Program.  As part of the Health Promotion Program, the Health Department employs eight Health Promotion Specialists, which are deployed to schools at the beginning of each school year to help with health screenings and identification of students’ with medical conditions.  The Health Promotion Specialists also work on the development and implementation of prevention programs.  The School Health Promotion program uses a coordinated school health approach as recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The programs are evidence based and focused on kindergarten and primary grades, before and after school programs, and with our community partners and the parent /school community.  Reduction in childhood obesity and an increase in health lifestyle choices among FCPS children is the goal of the program.

At our January 2014 Steering Committee Meeting we had the pleasure of learning more about the School Health Promotion program from Christine A Narbut, MSN, RN, School Health Coordinator. Ms. Narbut’s presentation may be viewed by clicking here>>> and the School Health Promotion Toolkit may be found at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/hd/schoolhealth/toolkit.htm. 

FCPS Celebrates National School Breakfast Week

National School Breakfast Week – March 5-9, 2012

“School Breakfast—Go for Gold” will highlight how eating a healthy balanced breakfast at school helps students shine. The campaign will help students learn about the importance of eating healthy and being active. “School Breakfast - Go for Gold” also aligns with USDA’s HealthierUS School Challenge and the First Lady's Let's Move Goals.

National Breakfast Week will be celebrated in Fairfax County Public Schools on March 9, 2012. As has been our practice for the past six years the Energy Zone, food and nutrition services, will partner with the National Capital Chefs Association and serve free breakfast to the students and parents. This year the event will be held at Lynbrook Elementary School.

In 2011 Braddock Elementary School, a Fairfax County Public School, in partnership with the Office of Food and Nutrition Services and American Culinary Federation-Nation's Capital Chef's Association, observed National School Breakfast Week with a special breakfast. The emphasis of the celebration was the importance of a good breakfast to start the day.

Penny E. McConnell, RD, SNS
Director, Food and Nutrition Services

 

FCPS Teen Chefs to Receive Cooking Tools

Middle school students from Glasgow and Thoreau Middle Schools will receive a variety of cooking tools so they can practice their newly-learned cooking skills at home at the closing reception of the Teen Chefs on the Move! program on Thursday, January 5, at 1:30 p.m. at Chesterbrook Residences in Falls Church. Glasgow and Thoreau Middle Schools are Fairfax County public schools.

Teen Chefs on the Move! is a joint partnership with the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Office of Food and Nutrition Services, the After School Middle School Program, and the Nation’s Capital Chef’s Association (NCCA). The eight week program was offered after school during the fall at both Thoreau and Glasgow Middle Schools. Students were taught a variety of culinary competencies ranging from proper sanitation to basic skills to how to prepare fruits, vegetables, and whole grains using an array of cooking techniques. The teen chefs toured a local grocery store to learn how to shop for healthy and affordable food and to see how a grocery store operates behind the scenes.

Teen Chefs on the Move! was designed to support First Lady Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to Schools initiative. It also complements the Office of Food and Nutrition Services’ nutrition education efforts and partnership with the NCAA.

http://schoolscene/2012/ss07_teenchefsonthemove.mp4

Manassas City Public Schools' 95210 for Health™ Song

Manassas City Public Schools have developed a 95210 for Health™ Song set to the tune of "London Bridges Falling Down".  You can listen to the song, sung by students, here.

Download FullTrack 1 Manassas 95210 Song

Fun, Food and Fitness Take Center Stage

“Get Movin’ Family Fun Day” had the ProJet Aviation hangar rocking on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2011.  Hundreds of families came from the entire Northern Virginia and southern Maryland area to test the thesis that “Healthy exercise and healthy food can be fun.”

Rod Williams, Inova Health System vice president for community affairs, welcomed the crowd from the Disney Radio stage with those words.

“Developing healthy communities is what we are doing,” Williams said. “Inova has been working with the Mystics for more than a year and this is the first step in how we want to go into these communities and promote education, fitness and nutrition. We believe we have the right partner [in the Washington Mystics].”

Inova Health System and the Washington Mystics co-sponsored the event, and brought in Radio Disney to up the tempo. Also on deck were rock climbing, hoops, face painting, ground-level games and cooking demonstrations from Inova and Market Salamander chefs.

The Mystics and Inova teamed up earlier this year to cooperate across the region in promoting fitness, healthy life styles, and nutrition and to combat childhood obesity.

“What’s really nice about this event,” Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd said, “is that Radio Disney has partnered with the Northern Virginia Coalition for Healthy Kids to try to boost healthy eating and healthy exercise for kids, to try to combat childhood obesity.”

With the combined health-power of Sheila Johnson and Inova, Umstattd said, “there’s a great coalition developing here in Northern Virginia to combat childhood obesity.”

Sandy Thompson, co-chair of NVHK, a four-year old grass roots enterprise dedicating to decreasing rates of childhood obesity, handed out her “95210” magnet: Healthy children will have nine hours of sleep a day, eat five serving of fruits and vegetables, spend no more than two hours in front of a screen, put in one hour of physical activity, and consume zero sugary snacks.

The coalition is reaching out to the business, school, recreation and faith communities, Thompson said, and is seeing some signs of success.

(excerpt from the LeesburgPatch, 9/27/11)

NVHK Coalition Brings 95210 for Health™ to Boys & Girls Clubs in Fairfax County

A $25,000 grant, from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, enabled the NVHK Coalition to adapt/distribute 9-5-2-1-0 for Health™ toolkits to the Culmore Character Club Branch of the Fairfax Region Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington (BGCGW). Many of the youth served at BGCGW are at-risk to become overweight or obese. The toolkits will supplement the BGCGW current wellness activities through opportunities to engage in a variety of hands-on activities related to making healthy choices.

In August 2011, a pilot program was conducted at the Murraygate Village club during their summer camp program. A train-the-trainer approach was used to train staff and high school age members to properly use the toolkits with the elementary/middle school BGCGW members. The newly trained trainers will engage their peers and younger members in the toolkit activities. An afterschool program will be conducted at the branch’s three clubs starting mid-September 2011.

 

Claremont's Healthy Choices: 95210 for Health™

From Arlington Public Schools: Promoting healthy choices is one of Claremont Elementary School’s priorities. In this week’s episode, Snapshots visits with P.E. teacher Renee Seay to talk about Claremont’s participation in the 9-5-2-1-0 for Health™ program. (APS Snapshots is filmed and produced by the Arlington Educational Television Department (AETV) in cooperation with the Arlington Public Schools Department of School and Community Relations.)

   

 

NVHKC Featured in PRC Community Health Connection Newsletter

Northern Virginia Healthy Kids Coalition is the center spread!

Connecting You to the Community Health Community

Click here  to read the inaugural edition of Community Health Connection, at the PRC web site. The newsletter details the latest developments in community health national requirements and financial implications, case studies, and helpful resources. Please share this with others in your organization that are responsible for planning, community benefit reporting or hospital finances. 

The on-line version is a flip-book and for print, a PDF version.

Making a Difference in Children's Health

 

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9-5-2-1-0 for Health™ is a community-wide campaign to promote healthy lifestyles for children in Northern Virginia. Please use the ideas and tools provided here to help your communities' youth live the 9-5-2-1-0 for Health™ message in simple ways, every day.

 

What You Can Do

 

1. Spread the Message. Start by spreading the 9-5-2-1-0 for Health™ message to children, parents, caregivers, colleagues, friends, and neighbors. Learn more...

 

2. Use the Tools. Adopt policies & practices that support the 9-5-2-1-0 for Health™ behaviors in your particular setting. Encourage others to do the same wherever children live, learn, and play. Click a tool kit in the left-hand menu...

 

 

9 Hours of Sleep 

 

 

 

5 Servings of fruits and vegetables daily

 

 

 

2 No more than 2 hours of recreational screen time daily

 

 

 

 1 Hour of physical activity daily

 

 

 

0 No sugary beverages

 

 

 

 

3. Join the Campaign. Join the 9-5-2-1-0 for Health™ campaign to connect with other people who share your commitment to child health promotion. There is no cost to join, and we will equip you with ideas & tools for spreading the message and supporting the 9-5-2-1-0 for Health™ behaviors. Click here to join...

 

 26January2015