2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

324825
Making School Wellness Easy: From Assessment to Action Planning to Certification


Monday, November 2, 2015

Hannah Laughlin, MPH, Field Operations Department, Action for Healthy Kids, Chicago, IL
Jill Camber-Davidson, RDN, CD, Field Operations Department, Action for Healthy Kids, Chicago, IL
  
Introduction: In 2014, Action for Healthy Kids (AFHK) adopted the nutrition, physical activity, and cross-cutting components of the CDC’s School Health Index as a complimentary evaluation tool for their school wellness initiatives. Schools that complete the AFHK modified School Health Index are provided a customized report on their areas of strength weakness. Schools are then walked through the AFHK process of action planning and provided resources to help them work towards national healthy schools certification.

Methods: Working through an online technology solution that helps schools complete the School Health Index and an online action plan, schools are provided an easy to use system to help them evaluate and plan improvements to school health practices, policies and systems. Subsequent school health index reports will be used to identify progress.

Results: Aggregate data will be reported from the  2014 and 2015 School Health Teams and the action planning from over 1500 schools. AFHK will also analyze themes and improvements in schools who participated in both year’s assessments.

Discussion: Using an innovative model, Action for Healthy Kids is helping schools assess and evaluate their school wellness environment, develop an action plan for improvements and then apply for national recognition through a healthy schools certification.

Learning Areas:

Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs

Learning Objectives:
Describe Action for Healthy Kids’ School Health Index Identify the successes and lessons learned related to action planning for improving school health environments Discuss the importance of strong wellness policies and environments for schools and the importance of healthy schools certification

Keyword(s): School-Based Health, Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Hannah is responsible for growing the capacity of Action for Healthy Kids state teams, physical activity programming and an urban school wellness coalition. Hannah received her Master in Public Health from Indiana University. Her areas of interest include school wellness, childhood obesity, pediatric health and community-based programming.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3319.0: Measuring School and Youth Health Outcomes