February 27, 2017
Healthi Kids' Play Advocacy to be Shared at Two National Conferences
Healthi Kids' Jenn Beideman will share how the PlayROCs movement has grown in Rochester at the Active Living Research Conference in February and the US Play Coalition's Value of Play Conference in April. Her presentation will highlight our community's efforts to support play across the City. Jenn will share how our playability work has changed citywide policies that support safer play spaces for kids and adults. This work includes the development of five resident-designed playability plans and the creation of our Play ROCs campaign.
Active Living Research brings together active living champions to share knowledge and ideas for creating active communities. This year's program focuses on "Active Living Across the Life Span" - stressing the importance of promoting physical activity from childhood to adulthood.
The US Play Coalition brings together play leaders from across the country to share best practices, and opportunities. This year's program focuses on how cities can bring play to landscapes, curriculum, programs, museums and beyond with the theme "where design meets play". For more information on our PlayROCs campaign contact Jenn Beideman at 585-224-3151 or jennbeideman@flhsa.org.
Playworks Returns to Rochester for More Recess Training
Playworks came to town this month to deliver training for teachers and staff from Rochester City School District. Recess volunteers from the Flower City AmeriCorpsand Monroe Community College got to join in on the training too.Playworks is a national nonprofit that works to promote play to support children's social and emotional health. They provide training on the importance of play and how to create a safe and healthy recess environment for children. Recess staff and volunteers spent the day learning how to create physical activity plans that will keep kids active throughout the day. Five elementary schools from the district came out to join the fun and left with some great new tools to test out this school year. We heard from many staff members that they look forward to this training each year and encourage their co-workers to come see what it's all about. Check out our Healthi Kids Recess Toolkit for more recess resources and indoor/outdoor play ideas. For more information on the Playworks Recess Training, contact Alicia Evans at 585-224-3172 or aliciaevans@flhsa.org.
Teen Youth Food Advisory Council
Remember the RSCD's Youth Food Advisory Council that launched last year? Otherwise known as the "Foodtastic Nutrition Council"? Well, Healthi Kids started hearing from teens in the Rochester City School District that they wanted to get in on the action too. In January, Erick Stephens from the Healthi Kids team, worked with district food service staff and Youth Voice One Vision to host the first meeting of the Teen Food Advisory Council. The teens plan to meet monthly and will kick things off by creating a survey about school food for students and food service staff. With the feedback they get from the surveys they plan to put together a "State of School Food Report". The report will help the council and food service staff work together to see where they are doing well, and what they might like to improve about school food. Stay tuned to see what they find out! For more information about the teen or youth food advisory councils, contact Erick Stephens at 585-224-3112 orerickstephens@flhsa.org.
Traffic Safety Community Impact Initiative
Last fall, Mike Bulger from the Healthi Kids team organized a working group to develop an education campaign around traffic safety and following the rules of the road. Funded in part by New York State Department of Health and MVP Health Care, the group includes cycling organizations, non-profit and advocacy groups, city and county government, traffic officers, and community residents. At the end of 2016 they were chosen by Causewave Community Partners as a Community Impact Initiative. Through this partnership, Causewave will help the group with their strategy and bring additional resources to the Traffic Safety Education Campaign. In the end they hope to make streets safer for people of all abilities, including pedestrians and bicyclists. For more information click here to view Healthi Kids' Traffic Safety and Health Outcomes data brief or contact Mike Bulger at 585-224-3171 or mikebulger@flhsa.org.