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Pediatricians, parents and policymakers are concerned about the high and rising percentage of overweight and obese children. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences released a report calling for the prevention of childhood obesity as a national priority and imperative. In Florida, childhood obesity is a growing problem, with 33.1 percent of children ages 10-17 overweight or obese; nationally, the percentage is 30.6 percent.
The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida will address the causes of childhood obesity with Embrace a Healthy Florida, a statewide initiative that goes beyond the traditional nutrition and fitness programs. Embrace a Healthy Florida will provide grants to nonprofit organizations, fund research and foster community collaboration and engagement.
For a list of grants made, click here.
Grantee News
The Blue Foundation awards 17 Healthy Kids, Healthy Jacksonville Community Grants to organizations that are tackling the health epidemic in Jacksonville. Read more...
The Healthy Jacksonville Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition announced "Healthy Kids, Healthy Jacksonville: A Community Call to Action to Reduce Childhood Obesity 2009" and "A Parent's Guide to Growing a Healthy Child"
Approach
The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida recognizes the significant interrelationship among research, policy and practice. In the interest of developing a sound strategy to achieve sustainable impact, The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida will implement a three-phase approach that builds upon these three pillars:
- Addressing Immediate Community Needs
This phase will include a series of immediate community grants to build stronger practice and policy endeavors to address the causes of childhood obesity at the local and community levels. The process will be informed by national, statewide and local research and initiatives. The purpose of these grants is to build capacity at the local and community level, increase collaborative efforts and attract additional resources.
- Funding Promising Obesity Research Efforts
This phase will include a series of grants to identify and investigate causes of childhood obesity across the state of Florida. The Blue Foundation will fund research on the causes of childhood obesity. The purpose of this effort is to strengthen the research base to inform policy and practice.
- Community Engagement
This phase is a long-term approach to addressing childhood obesity throughout Florida. This effort includes a detailed model of community intervention to expand community capacity to address the causes of childhood obesity. Meetings of donors, public sector organizations, and community organizations will be held to identify projects, needs, promising programs and practices, lessons learned and perceptions. The Blue Foundation will convene meetings among organizations to engage in a community-wide planning process. The purpose of this effort is to ground research, policy and practice; foster a comprehensive, coordinated community-led approach within each of the five communities; support planning, convening and communication vehicles; and evaluate and identify best practices within this initiative.
The Communities
Our Community Engagement programs will be initiated in five communities across Florida:
- Jacksonville
- Miami
- Orlando
- Tallahassee
- Tampa
A series of meetings with local community and philanthropic partners will be held in each city. At these meetings we will find out what activities are being developed and implemented, what is funded, what is working, and what are the perceptions, thereby highlighting what is needed for each community to address this challenge.
Following the Community Engagement process, local partners will be identified to help us develop and sustain this initiative.
For additional information, please contact us:
The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida
4800 Deerwood Campus Parkway, DCC3-4
Jacksonville, FL 32246
1-800-477-3736, x 63215
Fax 904-905-8324
Email: Carl.Patten@bcbsfl.com
The Facts on Childhood Obesity
- In Florida, 33.1 percent of children ages 10-17 are overweight or obese; nationally, the percentage is 30.6 percent.
(National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality)
- The prevalence rate of overweight and obesity is more than two of five for Florida children who are poor (43.1 percent), on public health insurance (40.8 percent), or black non-Hispanic (45.3 percent).
(National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality)
- Children who are overweight or obese are more likely than others to become obese as adults.
(Robert C. Whitaker and others, "Predicting Obesity in Young Adulthood from Childhood and Parental Obesity," New England Journal of Medicine 337 (1997): 869-73.)
- Overweight and obese children suffer from higher rates of depression, greater difficulty in peer relationships and poorer quality of life than their normal weight counterparts.
(Action for Healthy Kids, The Learning Connection: The Value of Improving Nutrition and Physical Activity in Our Schools, 2004 (www.ActionForHealthyKids.org [July 7, 2005]).
- Estimated hospital costs of treating children for obesity-associated conditions rose from $35 million in 1979-1981 to $127 million in 1997-1999, in 2001 dollars.
(Guijing Wang and William H. Dietz, "Economic Burden of Obesity in Youths Aged 7 to 17 Years: 1979-1999," Pediatrics 109, 5 (2002): E81.)
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