Leadership for Healthy Communities: Advancing Policies to Support Healthy Eating and Active Living

The Foundation's program, Leadership for Healthy Communities: Advancing Policies to Support Healthy Eating and Active Living, was designed to work with elected and appointed officials to create and promote healthier communities.The Local Government Commission (LGC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization comprised of about 500 mayors, city council members and county supervisors, primarily from California. Their mission is to assist local governments in establishing and nurturing the key elements of livable communities: a healthier human and natural environment; a more sustainable economy; an equitable society; and an actively engaged populace. LGC's policy intervention targets policymakers and the public in the San Joaquin Valley in California, a high-poverty and heavily Hispanic area. The goal is to educate these policymakers and the public about policies that change the physical environment so that children and families have the opportunity to incorporate physical activity in their daily lives. Additionally, through the provision of general information and in response to written requests for technical assistance, LGC will educate policymakers about ways zoning policies can increase access to healthy foods for school-age children in the valley.LGC will expand its focus to include cultivating additional policymaker champions in the San Joaquin region, as well as leveraging its relationships through the New Partners for Smart Growth conference. In response to written requests for technical assistance, they will provide government bodies with information that will assist cities and counties in the adoption of form based codes; complete street policies; traffic calming; and other streetscape improvements that make it physically possible and safe for children to play in front of their homes, walk or bike to school and for families to incorporate physical activity in their daily lives.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded $300,000.00

Awarded on: 11/8/2012

Time frame: 11/1/2012 - 10/31/2014

Grant Number: 70374