Voices for Healthy Kids Announces Funding Awards for Innovation, Equity and Exploration Special Project Workgroups
August 13, 2019
Voices for Healthy Kids is excited to announce our 2019-2020 funding awards for national organizations leading issue coalitions and Innovation, Equity and Exploration special project workgroups (IEE). They will mobilize broad expertise, perspectives and advocacy capacity in an engagement model around health equity and the social determinants of health, advancing the public policy agenda of the initiative.
Issue-specific coalitions will further expand our networks and support Voices for Healthy Kids by building collaboration among diverse stakeholders, sharing grassroots campaigns and valuable resources as well as exploring policy issue developments and challenges. This past year, coalitions successfully extended collaborative work in the areas of school health, early care and education, Head Start programs, afterschool programs as well as active transportation related areas in communities. The funded coalitions are:
- School Physical Education and Physical Activity Coalition (PEPA) led by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation
- Early Childhood Education Coalition (ECE) led by Child Care Aware of America
- Head Start Coalition (EHS/HS) led by the National Head Start Association
- Active Transportation Financing Coalition led by Safe Routes Partnership
- School Foods Coalition led by Center for Science in the Public Interest
Special project workgroups (IEE) support dialogue on social, demographic, policy and other trends related to the policy areas. Each workgroup has specific deliverables to be completed by the end of each one-year project. As an example of how the special project workgroups (IEEs) dig in deep on critical issues, this past year the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) led development of report, A Roadmap for Comprehensive Food Service Guidelines. This deep dive into procurement sheds much needed light on critical ways to improve nutrition in institutions serving populations of greatest need.
Best practices and opportunities to advance policies in diverse public settings will continue to be a focus of the coalitions and special project workgroups (IEE) this year. Additional coalitions and/or workgroups may still be funded during this fiscal year. The special project workgroup (IEE) for this coming year include:
Adverse Childhood Experiences
- Exploring implications of Adverse Childhood Experiences for policy interventions focused on child development and health of young children in non-parental settings led by Public Health Law Center.
School Wellness and Health
- Exploring issues of children’s mental health needs in school climates to support further exploration and development of new policy priorities and potentially support future advocacy work related to Adverse Childhood Experiences led by ChangeLab Solutions.
Health Equity and Sugary Drinks
- Addressing enhancement of equity related to sugary drink taxes and offer insight in how to integrate communities in development of sugary drink tax design co-led by Healthy Food America and Praxis.
Active Transportation Equity
- Exploring active transportation policies, implementation of implementation and impact of efforts of these policies in rural communities led by Physical Activity Research Center (PARC) facilitated by Baylor University.
- Exploring multiple topics on new shared mobility issues with potential to inform future policy in active transportation led by Safe Routes Partnership.
- Addressing health equity implications of active transportation policies for Latino focused populations led by Salud America!
