title: Establishing health-promoting workplaces in Aboriginal community organisations: healthy eating policies.
abstract: Aboriginal community controlled health organisations (ACCHOs) and cooperatives function at the centre of community life for local Aboriginal people across Victoria. Local Aboriginal people govern them, work within them as managers and service providers, access health and community services from them and form the constituents who determine their directions. Victorian ACCHOs reflect the unique characteristics of the local Aboriginal community. Thus, potentially, Victorian ACCHOs are key strategic sites for health promotion activities that seek to establish and nurture healthy community, family and peer norms. The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) partnered five metropolitan, regional and rural ACCHOs in a pilot project towards the establishment of healthy food policies and practices in their organisations. Project activities combined both 'top-down' policy-oriented and 'bottom-up' practice-oriented strategies. This paper, drawing upon both baseline and follow-up quantitative and qualitative data, describes initiatives leading to increases in healthy catering choices and related challenges for Aboriginal workplace health promotion practice.
authors.affiliation: Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, PO Box 1328, Collingwood, Vic. 3066, Australia.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.affiliation: Victoria University, PO Box 14428, Melbourne, Vic. 8001, Australia.
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Genat
authors.affiliation: Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, PO Box 1328, Collingwood, Vic. 3066, Australia.
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thorpe
authors.affiliation: Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, PO Box 1328, Collingwood, Vic. 3066, Australia.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Browne
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D016730:Program Development; D014739:Victoria; D017132:Workplace