HLM Newsletter- October 2016

A Houston/Harris County Childhood Obesity Prevention Collaborative

October 2016 / Issue No. 46

In This Issue

Healthy Living Matter Awarded for Outstanding Leadership.

Harris County Build Health Challenge Wins GE HealthCities Award RasingofAmerica

HLM & Richey Elementary Celebrate International Walk to School Day

Featured Resource

Texas Obesity News

National Obesity News

Research & Reports

Upcoming Events

Contact us: Phone: 713-439-6118
Email: [email protected] Website: www.healthylivingmatters.net

Healthy Living Matters Awarded for Outstanding Leadership -

The Texas Early Childhood Professional Development System (TECPDS) provided Healthy Living Matters with a Leadership Award. This award was for developing and sending out a Call to Action, in partnership with TECPDS, to encourage early care and education (ECE) professional development providers to create opportunities for quality training in obesity prevention topics.

This award was give n out at the 2016 Trainer Reception, hosted at the Texas Associa tion for the Education of YOung Children (TAEYC) Conference in Da llas, TX on September 22nd. Katie Chennisi, Public Health Analyst for Harris County Public Health, was there to receive the award on behalf of HLM. As one of her roles, Katie supports HLM by engaging the ECE sector around obesity prevention and hosts a monthly ECE Action Team meeting that is open to the public. If interested in being a part of these efforts, please email Katie at [email protected].

L to R - Katie Chennisi (HCPH), Dr. Tracy Jones (CLI), Albert Wright (Trainer), and Richard Gomez (Lakeshore Learning)

Harris County BUILD Health Challenge Wins GE HealthyCities Award

From GE website posted on October 11, 2016

GE recently announced nine national winners of the HealthyCities Leadership Academy Open Innovation Challenge, which includes Pasadena, TX. Each winning community will receive an initial award of $25,000 in prize money to help develop population health improvements through partnerships with public and private entities, and will be eligible for a final prize award of $250,000 after a year of collaborative learning and support.

In collaboration with (in alphabetical order) Brighter Bites, City of Pasadena, Harris County Public Health, Houston Food Bank, Impetus Houston, Indoor Harvest, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and PeopleFund, the Pasadena proposal strives to produce and distribute local sources of produce in the north Pasadena community in Harris County. Additionally, this proposal seeks to increase consumption of these healthy foods by implementing "food prescriptions" and a need-based Food Scholarship Program which will provide free food at a Houston Food Bank partner agency, called a "Scholarship Pantry."

The full article can be found at http://www.genewsroom.com/press-releases/ge-announces-winners-healthycities-leadership-academy%E2%80%99s-open-innovation-challenge

HLM & Richey Elementary Celebrate International Walk to School Day

From Pasadena ISD posted on October 5, 2016

For the first time in Pasadena ISD, over 100 students, parents, staff and community volunteers hopped on the walking school bus early Wednesday morning to celebrate International Walk to School Day.

The annual event raises awareness about the need for safe routes for walking and emphasizes the importance of physical activity among children, pedestrian safety and concern for the environment. Walk to School Day also helps build connections between families, schools and the community.

Rep. Gilbert Peña, HLM Volunteers and Richey Elementary students holding up their Walking School Bus signs.

Richey Elementary partnered with Harris County Public Health, Healthy Living Matters and the Pasadena Police Department for the walk. Events like this can help support HLM Policy Priority P1, which encourages safe neighborhoods policies, including Safe Routes to School. To watch the video of the event, click on the image below.

The full article can be found at:

https://www1.pasadenaisd.org/news/what_s_new/richey_community_celebrates_international_walk_to_

Voices for Healthy Kids Action Center

Voices for Healthy Kids Action Center is the only online national network of people solely dedicated to ensuring our kids grow up at a healthy weight. We connect Leaders across the movement with hundreds of thousands of supporters in advocacy efforts to implement policies that will help reduce childhood obesity nationwide.

A project of the American Heart Association , the Voices for Healthy Kids Action Center offers free tools, services and support to the people and organizations who are working to ensure children everywhere can eat healthier and become more physically active.

Children with unhealthy weights threaten the health and future potential of our young people. More than 23 million children and adolescents in the United States - nearly one in three young people - are now obese or overweight, putting them at higher risk for life-threatening health problems. If we don't reverse the epidemic, the current generation of young people could be the first in U.S. history to live sicker and die younger than their parents' generation.