Encouraging families to be active and healthy through a public awareness campaign and program

Background

Obesity remains a prevalent problem for families living in Boston neighborhoods. In our local school district, an estimated 39% of all children are either overweight or obese with Black and Latino students having higher rates compared to White students.  Healthy Family Fun is a public awareness campaign and educational initiative designed to bring health and wellness information to Boston families. 

Methods

Healthy Family Fun’s public awareness component features local families engaged in physical activity together. Using media outlets such as community newspapers, billboards, radio and TV, families are encouraged to be active together and directed to the website which features recipes and tips for eating healthy, along with a database to search for physical activities.

The program also works in collaboration with our local school system to host Healthy Family Fun nights. The events engage families in activities such as zumba, yoga and cooking demonstrations.

Outcomes

Last year, we had over 51 million media impressions through posters at subway stops and billboards in the targeted neighborhoods.  Our web site continues to draw new users. We’ve had over 24,710 unique page views on our web site and our Facebook page has over 1,560 likes.

Through our school-based events, we’ve been able to reach over 5,660 individuals through events in 12 different schools. 

Looking forward

In the coming year, we are expanding our reach to support 22 schools to offer Healthy Family Fun for their families.  We also will continue our media campaign and plan enhancements to the web site and Facebook.