Oral

Transforming community landscapes to create new opportunities for healthy eating and active living are a trend in more holistic approaches to chronic disease prevention. Increasingly, such efforts also seek to identify potential community change agents and empower them to engage their peers to utilize newly-created opportunities for making healthy food choices and being active. This session looks at a variety of dynamic efforts to motivate key change agents to take action to enhance policy and environmental efforts in their own communities. In California, two presentations provide details and curriculum related to trainings for parents and key community activists to advocate for the adoption and implementation of school wellness policies along with the findings of extensive focus groups involving the same change agents. These focus groups explore their ideas about cultural and other barriers as well as opportunities for community buy-in of wellness policies. In Connecticut, a presentation will share protocols and efficacy measures for family sessions designed to gain parental buy-in for newly established hands-on food education in their child's classroom. Lastly, in Philadelphia, a social marketing campaign co-created and rolled out by local youth to promote Snack ‘n Fresh kiosks in bodegas filled with healthy snacks selected by the youth, demonstrates the power of enlisting key change agents and inspiring their participation to provide added muscle to policy and education interventions.

Session Objectives: Participants will be able to identify effective strategies for engaging community members and gaining their buy-in to serve as change agents to enhance the effectiveness of policy and/or education interventions.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)