How to Build a Public/Private Partnership that Supports Healthy Communities: Lessons Learned from the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative

Childhood obesity is a complex health issue with a variety of causes that go beyond factors that individual families can control. To successfully address childhood obesity, leaders must address the social and environmental factors that contribute to this crisis. Effective obesity prevention at the community level necessitates efforts by a variety of stakeholders across multiple sectors to create healthier environments, coordinated by strategic leadership. Established in 2006, the San Diego County Childhood Obesity Initiative (Initiative) is a public/private partnership that has engaged community partners from multiple sectors (government; healthcare; schools; early childhood; community; media; and business) to work together to impact childhood obesity through environmental, systems and policy change in a county of 3.2 million. With centralized coordination and leadership by a non-profit organization (Community Health Improvement Partners), leaders from hundreds of agencies and organizations have voluntarily stepped forward to guide work in and across sectors and engage colleagues while checking their individual agendas at the door. This tremendous effort has resulted in significant policy change at the city and county levels, implementation of obesity prevention strategies and environmental changes, development of best practice models, and leveraging of millions of dollars in funding to support obesity prevention throughout San Diego County. This session will describe the steps that led to development of this thriving multi-sectoral obesity prevention coalition; strategies for successful engagement of traditional and non-traditional partners; methods to assure sustainability; challenges that have been encountered and ways to overcome them; and lessons learned during the past six years.