Healthy & Active Communities Initiative: a foundation's response to the obesity epidemic.
Missouri has the 12th highest rate of adult obesity and the 15th highest rate of overweight and obese youth in the United States. In response, Missouri Foundation for Health has implemented the Healthy and Active Communities Initiative (H&AC). Methods applied through H&AC include grantmaking, evaluation support, dissemination technical assistance, policy assessment, and development of local, regional, and statewide collaborations to increase access to physical activity and nutrition through environmental, policy and behavior change. Results to date demonstrate more than 49 counties in the state have been impacted through 79 grantee projects. Nearly half (45%) of these grantees have achieved more than their original goals and 60% of grantees can sustain at least half of their program activities post award. Fifty percent of grantees have helped to change the way the community works on public issues. Through the H&AC Initiative, Missouri Foundation for Health serves as a model for how a foundation can assist in efforts to mitigate and prevent rising rates of obesity.
Missouri Foundation for Health, 1000 St. Louis Union Station, Grand Central Building, Suite 400, St. Louis, MO 63103, USA. astringerhessel@mffh.org
Amy Stringer
AS
Hessel
Jamie Wyatt
JW
Marshall
Web
W
Brown
Alyse B
AB
Sabina
Kathryn
K
DeForest
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D005381:Financing, Organized / Q000379:methods; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008923:Missouri / Q000453:epidemiology; D009043:Motor Activity; D052756:Nutritional Sciences; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016730:Program Development / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D012109:Research Support as Topic