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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Michelle A. Lombardo, DC, The OrganWise Guys Incorporated, 3838 Song River Circle, Duluth, GA 30097, 770-495-0374, wellness@abraxis.com and Deborah Little, EdD, Family Nutrition Program Coordinator, Mississippi State University Extension Service, 306 Bost Extension Center, Mississippi State, MS 39762.

The Mississippi Alliance for Self-Sufficiency, The OrganWise Guys Incorporated, and the ILSI Center for Health Promotion are collaborating with cooperative extension agents and elementary schools in the Delta Regions of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas to improve children's health via a school-based, curriculum-linked, replicable model.

The Delta H.O.P.E. Tri-State Initiative (HOPE) supports the implementation and evaluation of a classroom-based intervention that: 1) presents a cast of fun characters that help teach young children physiology and lifelong healthy behaviors through read-aloud books, games, dolls, and informational videos and 2) encourages short bouts of physical activity integrated with academic lessons. Funding for this four-year project (2003 – 2007) is provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The program targets 30,000 low-income students.

The HOPE model addresses the risk factors for obesity by meeting children where they spend a majority of their day….in the classroom and by making the academic day a forum through which to weave good nutrition and physical activity habits for a lifetime. The program is designed to be a turn-key operation with a precise order of trainings and events to realize maximum effectiveness and efficiency. HOPE is currently being successfully replicated in a Houston-area school system.

To sum up the results of the project, HOPE has recently received two prestigious awards (The 2005 Innovation in Prevention Award from the Department of Health and Human Services and The Cooper Institute's Gold Award) based on the evaluated success of the program and its potential to help reduce childhood obesity.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, audience participants will be able to

• Assess the feasibility of incorporating this model with their target audience.
• Descrbe the step by step process of implementing this model.
• List 3 ways multiple organizations can combine their strengths to address and remedy public health problems.

Keywords: Nutrition, Physical Activity

Related Web page: www.organwiseguys.com

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered