Oral

Since 2007, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation's leadership and funding initiative, entitled Growing Up Healthy, has had the goal to reduce childhood obesity among children ages 6-12 where Harvard Pilgrim Health Care operates- Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. The strategy behind the Foundation’s work is to share knowledge with stakeholders, expand promising efforts from the best, evidence-based practices, and inform policy champions. As a small foundation, we knew collaboration would be critical to make a measurable impact, so we worked to identify potential funding partners to support childhood obesity prevention initiatives throughout our region. We made major investments in one program in each of the states we serve, partnering with other Foundations and organizations on projects that had a wide reach within that state. The purpose of this presentation is to hear about the impact these programs have made in child health and what the Foundation has learned over the past five years.

Session Objectives: Discuss development of public/private partnership to develop efforts aimed at reducing childhood obesity. Describe activities in each state to increase active living and healthy eating with particular emphasis on children and families. Discuss efforts to evaluate community-level policy and environmental strategies effectiveness in addressing childhood obesity.