2016 Community Health Action Plan | Page 21

Goal 1: Educate and empower families across the lifecycle with the skills and information they need to make behavior changes that support a healthy lifestyle Anticipated Impact Increased community access to information about healthy lifestyle behaviors in children will result in increased community knowledge and skills related to healthy lifestyle behaviors in children, with the long term goal of better health outcomes resulting from positive behaviors such as healthy eating, physical activity, and adequate sleep. Additionally, research suggests a correlation between obesity and mental health, suggesting that engaging in healthy behaviors also has the potential to positively impact mental health. Additionally, we expect health care and service providers to be better equipped with information and skills they need to address healthy lifestyles with children and their families across the continuum, beginning in pregnancy. Ideally the community capacity to understand and support healthy lifestyle behaviors in children across a continuum will be increased. Strategy 1.1 Increase community knowledge by centralizing evidence based healthy lifestyle resources and content and make them easily accessible and available for families and other community based providers that serve families. Tactic: Form expert panel to identify evidence based content, and approve and update content on routine basis. Content will be focused on primary prevention and will encompass a child’s lifespan, starting during gestation. Tactic: Create an online hub to house information. Develop comprehensive, interactive toolkits for target audiences (such as parents, WIC program professionals, school staff, and other community based organizations). Tactic: Track utilization of resources and other actions, such as referrals resulting from people who accessed the information. Community Health Action Plan 21