In March 2005 the California Endowment awarded $11 million to six community collaboratives throughout California to participate in the foundation’s four-year Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC) Initiative. The objectives of the Initiative are to improve the food and physical activity environments for school-age children and to create momentum for widespread changes in the policies and practices that contribute to the rising rates of childhood obesity.

Obesity and its consequences such as diabetes are at epidemic levels among California children, especially among poor, ethnic and racial groups. Obesity that is due to unhealthy eating habits and inactivity, and influenced by factors in social and physical environments, is largely preventable.

One of the Initiative's hallmarks is to engage youth in activities, not only as recipients of services, but also in the processes of planning and implementing them, said Kathryn Boyle, grants manager with the Partneship for the Public Health, which provides grant management support for the Endowment.

Youth also participate in advising on state health policies that affect their peers. One notable achievement during the Initiative's first year was the formation of a Statewide Youth Board on Obesity Prevention, which was done in partnership with the California Center for Civic Participation and Youth Development, a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic participation organization striving to engage youth in the democratic process and encourage their healthy development.

The advisory board members receive training, work at HEAC sites to engage other youth and promote the Initiative, create a platform of issues based on their analysis of current State legislation related to health of youth and children, and give briefings to policymakers. Boyle gave an example of the members' opposition to a bill requiring physical education in all schools. Since it would affect only California, the students were concerned that the requirement would use time that they would otherwise devote to academic subjects that would keep them competitive with other students in the U.S. when applying for colleges or jobs.

The collaboratives selected are located in predominantly low-income, urban and rural communities in Los Angeles, Alameda, Orange, San Diego and Shasta counties. Collaboratives were selected through a rigorous process that took into account communities’ rates of diabetes, obesity, and youth fitness, community readiness to participate, and willingness to collaborate and partner across sectors.

Each collaborative consists of a community-based organization, a school district and a local public health department that work together to help change policies and practices in schools, after-school programs, neighborhoods, media and advertising, and in health care services to improve opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity. (To see the organizations participating in each collaborative, please see this report.)

Activities of the collaboratives include improving access to physical activities and nutritious food choices at schools and through after-school programs, as well as efforts to expand access to nutritious foods in neighborhoods by attracting grocery stores and farmer’s markets, among others. In addition, the collaboratives work to develop policies and programs for safe neighborhoods and places to exercise, and that counteract marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

“It is easy to say ‘eat right and get more exercise,’ but we have to do more to make sure that kids have access to nutritious foods and fun, safe places so that they want to participate in physical activity,” said Robert K. Ross, president and CEO of The Endowment. “This initiative is designed to help communities to take an active role in transforming their neighborhoods and schools into places where healthy food and activity choices are readily accessible.”

“It is unrealistic to place the burden of resolving this crisis on parents and children alone,” said Marion Standish, director of The Endowment’s Disparities in Health program. “Though personal responsibility is important, our fast-food, media-saturated, unsafe streets, car-oriented environment is working against us. Schools, physicians, food industry leaders and other stakeholders must work with communities to create an environment where it is easier for young people to make healthy choices about eating and physical activity.”

The California Endowment is a private, statewide health foundation whose mission is to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. It was created in 1996 as a result of Blue Cross of California's creation of WellPoint Health Networks, a for-profit corporation.

An important emphasis in their work is to actively promote and support an array of local grassroots coalitions, which are deeply rooted in communities and know best the conditions that need to change, as well as statewide and, in come cases, national organizations. Also guiding The Endowment's work is a Multicultural Approach to Health, which is defined not only by race and ethnicity, but financial status, cultural beliefs, gender, age, sexual orientation, geographic location, immigration status, and physical or mental abilities.

For more information about the Endowment and its Healthy Eating, Active Communities Initiative, please visit http://www.calendow.org/program_areas/heac.stm and http://healthyeatingactivecommunities.org.