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December 2017 E-Newsletter:
IAPO Coalition Updates: New Purpose Statement and Ways to Engage!
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Dear Friends,
As many of you are aware, IAPO has been working on strategic planning this year, and we have results to share with all of you! After various focus groups, a coalition survey, the full coalition meeting in October and discussions with our Leadership Committee, IAPO has updated and adopted a revised purpose statement, developed some new ways of engaging with our partners, and identified at least 3 policy priorities we'll be focusing on in 2018. Read more below!
Please also find updates on recent coalition activities, including Rethink Your Drink week in Illinois, and information about new tools, funding opportunities and upcoming trainings.
We wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!
In solidarity,
Elissa Bassler
Executive Director, Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity
CEO, Illinois Public Health Institute
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IAPO Adopts Revised Purpose Statement
After feedback from IAPO members at the coalition meeting in October, and additional conversations with the IAPO Leadership Committee, IAPO has adopted a revised purpose statement for 2018 and beyond!
New IAPO purpose statement:
The Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity (IAPO) is a multi-sector coalition that works for equitable and just opportunities for Illinoisans to eat healthy and be physically active to optimize their health and well-being. Through partnerships and collaboration, public awareness building, technical assistance and advocacy, IAPO:
- Develops, changes, and implements policies and systems to support nutrition and physical activity and eliminate social and institutional barriers to maintaining a healthy weight.
- Fosters communities and institutions that integrate healthy foods and beverages and physical activity choices into everyday activities.
The new purpose statement will help IAPO better measure our success in reducing and preventing obesity in Illinois (measuring the new opportunities for nutrition and physical activity built through coalition work) and will allow IAPO to focus not only on traditional obesity prevention policy initiatives, but policy that addresses the social and institutional factors that play a role in healthy weight. IAPO remains committed to comprehensive policy, systems and environmental changes for obesity prevention at the state and local level across Illinois.
The previous IAPO purpose statement (adopted in 2010) is below:
The primary goal of the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity is to ensure that trends in obesity in Illinois are stable by 2015 and moving downward by 2018. Through public education and direct-action organizing, the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity seeks to:
- Propose new and bold solutions to the obesity epidemic through coordinated and comprehensive policy, systems, and environmental changes.
- Build a visible statewide movement to reduce obesity.
- Raise obesity reduction and prevention to the top of the policy and public health agendas.
- Disseminate and promote best practices and current information.
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IAPO Policy & Advocacy Updates
IAPO Policy & Legislative Agenda for 2018
While other policy initiatives may arise in 2018, IAPO plans to advocate for the following policies in 2018:
- Healthy Local Foods Incentive Fund: While the Healthy Local Foods Incentives Fund bill, which provides double-value coupon incentives to SNAP participants to access fresh fruits & vegetables at farmers markets and other direct-to-consumer venues, was passed into law in 2016, no appropriation was made for the fund in the FY 2018 state budget. IAPO partners will work to seek an appropriation of $500,000 in the FY 2019 state budget and will also seek to eliminate the pilot's sunset date of June 2019. To learn more about or get involved in this initiative, email Janna. Keep your eye out for updates and action alerts related to this process in 2018!
- Enhanced P.E. Policy: As part of the school funding reform bill passed in August, 2017, the daily P.E. requirement in schools was eliminated. IAPO is interested in strengthening the P.E. policy to promote a minimum minutes-per-week requirement for schools to still allow for local school flexibility in scheduling but to meet best practice recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and SHAPE America (150 minutes per week in elementary school and 225 minutes per week in secondary school). Strengthening the P.E. requirement to meet national best practices will support the other statewide efforts underway to support enhanced P.E., an evidence-based intervention aimed at getting kids engaging in more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during P.E. class time.
- Bridging to Preventive Care Medicaid Advocacy: IAPO has long been advocating for Medicaid payment for chronic disease prevention and management programs and worked to develop a Roadmap for Medicaid reimbursement of these programs in 2016. Throughout 2017, IAPO partners have been working to develop pilot programs with a Medicaid managed care organization to pay for the national Diabetes Prevention Program in two regions (Greater Joliet and East St. Louis, IL), as well as the Diabetes Self-Management Program (in greater Chicago area) for Medicaid clients in those areas. A bi-monthly learning collaborative of those participating in the pilot has begun. IAPO will continue to advocate for the expansion of these pilot programs to other Medicaid managed care plans and to other regions of the state in 2018. IAPO will also advocate for pilot programs for Medicaid reimbursement of similar programs for pediatric populations.
Policy alert from Action for Healthy Kids: The USDA recently announced the School Meal Flexibility Rule, which is designed to give schools more time and flexibility to implement additional changes to school meals, but effectively rolls back progress made in school food nutrition.
The rule would allow refined grains instead of whole-grain rich products and revise the sodium targets, even though nine out of ten children consume too much salt, according to the CDC. USDA should be doubling down on helping schools continue to improve school lunches, not slowing down progress. Here's how you can take action:
- Submit your comments on the proposed rule using the "Comment Now!" button. Comments are due by January 29.
- Share with the local press your successes, concerns, and opinions by submitting op-eds and/or asking them to cover the story.
- Encourage your school's suppliers, who have done the work to meet current standards, to share that with the administration by providing their own comments.
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New Ways to Engage in IAPO
Starting in 2018, IAPO will be making changes to the way we communicate and engage with partners. Several new ways of communicating will be available, while several of our general interest workgroups will dissolve. Here's what's in store:
- We'll continue to offer a monthly newsletter with coalition updates, upcoming events and new tools/resources related to obesity prevention.
- We'll continue to hold full coalition meetings in March (via webinar) and October (in-person) to allow for networking and input into our coalition work.
- The IAPO Leadership Committee will continue to meet monthly to provide strategic direction to the coalition.
- The Childhood Nutrition & Physical Activity in Educational Settings workgroup will continue to meet monthly to discuss P.E. and school wellness initiatives.
New/changing:
- Our workgroups will focus on specific advocacy/issue campaigns and will move away from general interest networking groups. This will allow for more efficient and effective use of everyone's time.
- We'll provide a new monthly policy and advocacy update with information about specific IAPO initiatives, messaging you can use/share in your organization and communities related to the initiatives, and upcoming policy/advocacy meetings of the coalition.
- We'll launch a new IAPO Listserv as a way for all of our partners to communicate with each other about new resources, tools, advocacy actions, etc. Listserv rules/guidance will be provided in early 2018, but please let Janna know if you'd like to be included on the listserv.
- We'll expand our Healthy & Active Communities Network to focus more on health equity in communities across the state, with opportunities for grassroots groups to provide input into IAPO policy priorities.
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News, Research, Events and Funding Opportunities
Events: Upcoming full-day (6-hour) Pump Up P.E. trainings
A) Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Cost: Free! (funded by a grant from the Illinois Prevention Research Center at the UIC Institute for Health Research and Policy)
Location: Church of Christ, 500 W. Highland, Robinson, IL 62454. Accessible to Clay, Crawford, Jasper, Lawrence and Richland counties.
6 CPDUs hours available
Download the promotional flyer here.
B) Date: Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Time: 8:30am-3:00pm CST
Cost:
Free! (funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health)
Location:
Rolland W. Lewis Community Building, 800 S 27th St, Mt Vernon, IL 62864
6 CPDU hours available
Download the promotional flyer
here.
C) Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Time: 9:00am-3:30pm CST
Cost:
$75 - includes lunch
Location:
ROE #26, 130 S Lafayette St #200, Macomb, IL 61455
Download the promotional flyer here.
D) Date: Friday, March 2, 2018
Time: 8:15am-3:00pm CST
Cost:
Free for Kane County teachers, $75 for non-Kane County Teachers
Location:
West Aurora High School, 1201 W New York St, Aurora, IL 60506
Download the promotional flyer
here.
E) Date: Thursday, March 8, 2018
Time: 8:30am-3:00pm CST
Cost: Free! (funded by a grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health)
Location:
Specific location TBD. General location: Champaign-Urbana
Download the promotional flyer
here
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News & Resources:
- Food from Farms Toolkit for Direct Purchasing of Local Food: This toolkit from the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA) is intended for use by school districts and child and adult nutrition programs, as well as other types of institutional food service, for procurement of local food directly from farmers. The toolkit offers examples and templates for starting up community-based procurement of local food directly from farmers. Explore the resource here.
Funding Opportunities:
- National Fitness Foundation Innovation Challenge: The National Fitness Foundation is committed to preparing children for a lifetime of health and fitness. Physical educators are invited to submit an innovative gym and fitness project for the chance to receive matched donations and win a $10,000 DonorsChoose.org gift card. For more information on qualifying criteria or to submit your project, click here. Judging begins early 2018.
- Salad Bars to Schools grants: The Chef Ann Foundation and the Whole Kids Foundation, along with partner organizations donate salad bars to schools so that every child across our nation has daily access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The time frame for when a school district's salad bar(s) is/are funded varies; however, it can take up to 12-14 months for your salad bar(s) to be funded. Learn more here.
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About IAPO
The Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity (IAPO) is a multi-sector coalition that works for equitable and just opportunities for Illinoisans to eat healthy and be physically active to optimize their health and well-being. Through partnerships and collaboration, public awareness building, technical assistance and advocacy, IAPO: 1) develops, changes, and implements policies and systems to support nutrition and physical activity and eliminate social and institutional barriers to maintaining a healthy weight; 2) fosters communities and institutions that integrate healthy foods and beverages and physical activity choices into everyday activities.
This initiative was launched and is coordinated by the Illinois Public Health Institute (IPHI). To learn more about IAPO, visit
www.preventobesityil.org
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Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity
Convened by the Illinois Public Health Institute
954 W. Washington Blvd., Ste. 405 MB 10,
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 850-4744 voice
(312) 850-4040 fax
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Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity | Illinois Public Health Institute | 312-850-4744
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