Highlights of the Division of Community Health (DCH) Awardee Successes

Successes were achieved by awardees funded under the Community Transformation Grants (CTG), Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW), Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH), and the Healthy Communities Program (HCP).

Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity

Highlights to Date:

• Approximately 1.8 million residents in Santa Clara County, California, are the first in the country to visit restaurants that stopped using toys and other incentives to increase the sale of meals packaged for children that are high in fat, sugar, and calories.
• In collaboration with the Parks and Recreation Department, the DeKalb County (Georgia) Board of Health increases access to healthy, affordable and locally grown foods by setting up countywide gardens for more than 690,000 residents in DeKalb County, Georgia.
• Approximately 99,685 community members in Davenport, Iowa, have increased access to physical activity by improving a 9-mile bike trail.

• Through a statewide Complete Streets strategy, 86,265 Duluth, Minnesota, residents benefit from better street use for walking and biking.

• Seattle/King County, Washington’s public education initiative called Let’s Do This focuses on motivating the community’s 1.9 million residents to create healthier places to live, learn, work, and play. Let’s Do This features messaging shared through television, radio, and billboards about the importance of healthy eating and encourages increased water consumption. This multilingual initiative has generated more than 180 million impressions. Commonly used to describe the impact of media initiatives, “impressions” are the number of times a message has been seen.
• More than 600 corner stores throughout Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, increase the availability of healthier food options to 1.54 million residents, many of whom are living in neighborhoods that previously had limited access to nutritious foods.
• People in Maui, Hawaii, have better access to affordable, healthy foods through the UpCountry Farmers’ Market. The community’s 5,000 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients can now use Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards to purchase fresh produce for their families when shopping at the market.
• New York City School District has improved the nutritional quality of the 800,000 meals served daily to students. The nutritional standards for school meals now must comply with the City Agency Food and Beverage Standards, which set standards for the amounts of sodium, fat, and calories contained in the foods and beverages served.
• Tri-County Health Department in Colorado is working with 14 area school districts for healthier food and beverage standards.  These standards are from the Institute of Medicine recommendations that call for providing nutritious fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nonfat or low-fat milk. The districts also encourage non-food or healthy food-related parties or rewards in the classroom. Nearly 232,750 students are benefitting from these improvements.
• Using a Complete Streets strategy to decrease obesity, 61,697 residents in Kershaw, South Carolina, have better access to walking and biking paths.
• In Wichita, Kansas, 382,368 residents are benefitting from better access to 130 new bike racks and two walking and biking paths throughout the city.
• New York City’s Health Bucks coupons are now accepted at 138 farmers’ markets. This provides more than $350,000 in free fruits and vegetables for low-income New Yorkers this season.
• The New Mexico Department of Health is increasing access to physical activity opportunities for more than 50,000 children by creating active outdoor school spaces for public use during non-school hours and increasing the number of Safe Routes to Schools.
• To date, 33 hospitals in New York City participate in the Latch on NYC initiative to support a mother's choice to breastfeed and limit the promotion of infant formula, which benefits approximately 100,000 mothers and newborns each year.
• South Carolina now has an additional 75 primary care practices that have signed a Business Associates Agreement to provide hypertension and hyperlipidemia evidence-based care to 300,000 adults and 150,000 pediatric patients. The agreement is with the Outpatient Quality Improvement Network (OQUIN) and adopts model policies consistent with United States Preventive Services Task Force guidelines to control hypertension and hyperlipidemia.
• The school district in Las Cruces, New Mexico, reaches approximately 12,000 students and their families by improving access to safe, physical activity space during non-school hours. Signs promoting the space use are posted in all 25 elementary schools. 
• Through Proyecto Movimien to, a program through the YMCA of Silicon Valley, California, more than 1,500 community residents (predominately Latino) attend free fitness events.
• Hidalgo Medical Services “promotores” reaches more than 3,000 New Mexico families with preventive and clinical services, and distributes food commodities to more than 300 families in rural communities.
• Mount Sinai School of Medicine screened more than 1,000 New York adults for pre-diabetes. Individuals diagnosed as pre-diabetic or diabetic are referred to peer-led local workshops proven to control diabetes and lead to significant, sustained weight loss.
• About 1.1 million students now benefit by having access to low-fat or skim milk in all New York City public schools.
• African American’s Building a Legacy of Health (AABLH) Consortium in Los Angeles, California, increases access to healthy and affordable food and beverages by changing institutional practices and promoting local investment. Specifically, these efforts help leverage support from California’s $200 million Fresh Food Financing Fund that seeks to get rid of food deserts and fight childhood obesity.
• South Carolina’s Charleston and Georgetown Counties, through the Medical University of South Carolina, carry out education system changes for people with diabetes by increasing knowledge and awareness about diabetes care and prevention. These efforts have reduced amputations by 44% for African Americans over 3 to 4 years, with annual cost savings of $2 million.
• In Seattle-King County, Washington’s Department of Health creates opportunities for 5,400 Latinos to engage in work site wellness activities and attend diabetes education classes about blood pressure and cholesterol control. 
• In Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma, the Going Lean Task Force encourages and promotes health and fitness among more than 8,000 tribal members and employees through community forums, community gardens, and physical activity events. These efforts reach more than 400 American Indian youth with health education information on cardiovascular disease prevention and skills that promote healthy lifestyles. 
• The City of San Antonio, Texas, and the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) have a joint-use agreement to allow 1.3 million residents to use four SAHA-owned walking and biking trails and fitness stations that increase access to physical activity. Prior to this agreement, the trails were accessible only to SAHA residents.
• In Florida, Miami/Dade County has a plan for better access to physical activity opportunities for the county’s 2.5 million residents. Among other aims, the plan details design principals, such as clearly defined crosswalks and signals, to provide safe routes to neighborhood parks.
• In Illinois, Cook County is developing a comprehensive and integrated network of transportation options that support walking, biking, and public transit in adherence to Complete Streets principles. Such changes improve bicycle and pedestrian safety for the community’s 5 million residents.
• Pima County, Arizona’s 600,000 residents are benefitting from a 55-mile, multi-use active transportation pathway around the metro Tucson area called the Loop. Supported efforts contribute toward infrastructure planning for the Loop and for the launching a public awareness initiative to let community members know of its existence and encourage its use.
• The YMCA of Metro Chicago, Illinois, has enacted new physical activity and nutrition guidelines for after-school programs. Young people must now spend at least 20% of their time participating in physical activity while at the program. In addition, nutrition standards are aligned with Alliance for a Healthier Generation Guidelines that call for more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, as well as healthy beverages. An estimated 55,000 young people are members of Metro Chicago YMCA.
• David Douglas School District in Multnomah County, Oregon, now requires at least 150 minutes per week of physical activity for elementary and middle school students. This change benefits the district’s more than 10,000 students.

Tobacco Use and Prevention

Highlights to Date:

• The City of Tahlequah's 15,753 residents in Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma, are protected from secondhand smoke in outdoor areas.
• The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has reduced smoking in select city parks by two-thirds and reduced tobacco-related litter by two-thirds, protecting the city’s inhabitants and visitors from secondhand smoke in parks.
• More than 51,000 students, 24,000 faculty and staff, and annual visitors to the University of Texas Austin (including those to sporting events and arts performances) are now protected from secondhand smoke and other tobacco-related exposures.
• Individuals and families living in Santa Clara County, California, can now enjoy smoke-free parks, outdoor restaurant patios, and other outdoor public areas. These changes benefit 1.7 million residents throughout the county.
• The city of Boston, Massachusetts, now has the same legal requirements for electronic cigarettes as they do for tobacco products and restricts their sale to adults only. In addition, individual cigars, cigarettes, or bidis may not be sold and fines are doubled for retailers who sell tobacco products to anyone younger than18 years, benefitting 753,500 individuals.
• In Tacoma, Washington,  the PenMet area adopted a tobacco-free parks resolution that protects about 199,000 residents from tobacco exposure. All new parks will be tobacco-free, and signage will be placed in the existing 21 parks.
• In Maryland, Harford County has assured that 1,000 employees and 245,000 residents have access to tobacco-free environments by putting into place a tobacco-free environment rule beginning January 1, 2012, for all properties owned, leased, and operated by the county including indoor and outdoor recreation facilities.
• City University of New York (CUNY) is now the largest smoke-free public university system in the United States affecting 23 campuses, 262,000 academic-credit students, 38,000 faculty and staff, and tens of thousands of non-credit students and community members that visit and use CUNY campuses each year.
• The Billings Montana Housing Authority expanded their existing smoke-free policy to protect about 685 residents from tobacco exposure. The extended policy includes inside buildings, including single family units, and anywhere on the grounds.
• In St. Louis County, Missouri, the Let’s Face It awareness initiative educates community members about the health benefits associated with smoke-free public spaces and promotes   using the Missouri Tobacco Quit line to the community’s 319,000 residents. In addition to messages shared through television, radio, and print, the initiative also has the LetsFaceItSTL.com Web site that features tobacco-cessation resources and youth testimonials about the benefits of smoke-free living. The program yields 451 million impressions across all media.