Dates of Program: August 2009 to July 2015
Description: With the New Jersey YMCA State Alliance serving as state program office, the New Jersey Partnership for Healthy Kids (NJPHK) connects and supports coalitions in five communities (Camden, New Brunswick, Newark, Trenton, and Vineland) that are working to reduce childhood obesity and increase community health through environmental and policy change.
Strategies include:
- Improving access to healthy, affordable food
- Increasing the number of safe public places where children and families can be physically active
- Promoting healthy eating in schools and other locations
- Educating residents about good nutrition
“Our job is to go into communities and say, ‘Do you know you should have sidewalks, and your children should have the right to walk to school, and you should have access to fresh food?’”—Darrin Anderson, deputy director of NJPHK
NJPHK also collaborates and conducts policy advocacy at the state level. In 2013, the NJPHK and its partners adopted a collective impact approach and are using it to expand this effort to more than 30 communities statewide.