Weight of the State

Sessions

Plenary 1

Winning the Obesity Battle at the State and Local Level

Presentation (PDF)

Keynote Address

Food Marketing to Children

Presentation (PDF)

Concurrent Sessions 1

Let’s Grow! Edible Gardens and Local Partnerships for Healthy Foods

Community and school gardens provide many benefits: fresh produce, health promotion through exercise, opportunities for multi-generational learning, and care for the environment. This session offers strategies for building partnerships around school/community gardens, facilitating the creation of community garden programs, and sustaining the activities throughout the year.
Presentation 1 (PDF)
Presentation 2 (PDF)
Handout (PDF)

Building a Healthy, Livable Community

Virginia’s Eastern Shore is a uniquely beautiful area of the state, bordered by the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Farming and fishing have been ways of life for generations there, but now high rates of poverty and chronic disease threaten this community’s future. In this session, participants will learn about the Eastern Shore Healthy Communities initiative and its aim to create a “Livable Community.” Session participants will learn what makes up a livable community and how to create a collaborative group with an action plan to positively impact areas of nutrition, physical activity and tobacco cessation in their locality.

Investments in Health: Innovative Partnerships Between Insurers and Medical Practices to Address Childhood Obesity

In response to the increase in childhood obesity, Anthem of Virginia has piloted an early intervention program with several pediatric practices providing extra-contractual benefits for children with a BMI greater than 85%. In this session, participants will hear from medical experts regarding the outcomes of this pilot. Participants will brainstorm with two pediatricians and a representative from Anthem about covering services that would support healthy nutrition and lifestyle to prevent and reduce childhood obesity.
Presentation (PDF)

Health Begins in the Home: Effective Home Environmental Interventions to Reduce Childhood Obesity

The home environment is recognized as the primary setting influencing obesity in young children. In this session, researchers from Virginia Tech will present findings that demonstrate significant reduction in body weight status for children through multiple types of interventions targeting the home environment. Participants will leave this session with take-home examples of specific strategies, telephone scripts, and workbooks for implementing these programs in community or clinical settings.
Presentation (PDF)

Top of the Class: OrganWise Guys and VA Cooperative Extension Tackle Obesity

The OrganWise Guys Comprehensive School Program (OWG CSP) is an evidence-based, multi-media, cross-curricular program for teaching healthy choices. It uses fun characters based on the organs of the body coupled with high energy activities, to teach children how to make positive lifestyle choices. This session will describe the OWG CSP implementation, sustainability, and evaluation within the Montgomery County School District setting. Participants will learn how to partner with Virginia Cooperative Extension in their community and how to replicate this model.
Presentation 1 (PDF)
Presentation 2 (PDF)
Presentation 3 (PDF)

Increasing Physical Activity in Community and After-School Settings

Active communities create environments that promote physical activity by increasing the availability of trails, bike paths, play grounds, and facilities. In this session, representatives from the Greater Washington Boys and Girls Club and King George Family YMCA will discuss ways they have promoted physical activity with fun, innovative fitness activities and a new community playground. Participants will leave this session knowing what it takes to get today’s kids motivated to be physically active and how to make fitness fun!
Presentation 1 (PDF)
Presentation 2 (PDF)

Concurrent Sessions 2

Master Food Volunteers – Multiply Your Efforts by Partnering with Virginia Cooperative Extension

The Virginia Cooperative Extension launched the Master Food Volunteer program to train volunteers in healthy cooking, nutrition, physical activity, and working with diverse audiences. This session will include best practices of implementing a comprehensive volunteer program designed to promote healthy weights for youth and adults. The session will include hands-on activities from the Master Food Volunteer curriculum and will highlight successful youth nutrition and active living programs.
Presentation 1 (PDF)
Presentation 2 (PDF)
Salad Dressing Recipe (PDF)

Using the ENACT Assessment Tool to Develop a Strategic Plan: Lessons from the Community Obesity Taskforce

ENACT (Environmental Nutrition and Activity Community Tool) is a hands-on assessment and planning resource for organizations, coalitions and communities interested in improving their nutrition and physical activity environments. The tool can be used to evaluate past and current efforts around nutrition and physical activity improvements and offer new priorities for the year ahead. From this session, participants will hear about the experiences of the Charlottesville Community Obesity Taskforce and learn how to use this tool to develop a strategic plan for local efforts.
Presentation (PDF)

Applying Motivational Interviewing to Pediatric Obesity Treatment

Healthcare providers are in need of innovative techniques for addressing overweight and obesity with their patients. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a brief, patient-centered communication style, which helps patients explore and resolve ambivalence about change. It is currently recommended that clinicians integrate MI into their practice treating overweight and obese patients. Adhering to these guidelines, this will be an interactive session, teaching basic MI skills and concepts. Participants will learn how to integrate MI into their clinical practice using a customized toolkit for brief patient encounters.
Presentation (PDF)

How to Implement an Effective Obesity Program in a Busy Pediatric Practice

Busy pediatricians often do not have time or the necessary training to adequately address obesity during an office visit. This session will highlight how one pediatric practice in Northern Virginia has created the C.H.A.N.G.E. program (Children with Health, Activity, and Good Emotions). Participants will learn how this program effectively utilized an interdisciplinary team and a hybrid of insurance and out-of pocket-expenses to treat obesity in a comprehensive and financially sustainable manner.
Presentation (PDF)

School Wellness Policies 101

School wellness policies are intended to improve the eating and activity environment where children spend a large percentage of their time. During this session, presenters will highlight reviews of school wellness policies from Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Participants will receive tools to evaluate and improve existing school wellness policies.
Presentation (PDF)

What are Active Lessons and Brain Breaks?

Research has found that lessons involving physical activity as well as periodic rest periods from academic work improve students’ academic performance. In this session, experts will demonstrate how to access and use online “Active Lessons” that are organized by subject and grade level and by the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL). In addition, participants will learn how to design their own active lessons and brain breaks and how to most effectively use the lessons as part of their overall curriculum.
Presentation (PDF)

Concurrent Sessions 3

Navigating the Supermarket on a Budget: A Multimedia Approach to Support Healthy Eating

Participants in this session will screen portions of a 30-minute film entitled “The Bargain Shopper’s Guide to Healthy Eating.” The film was created by Caroline Gottesman, MS, Frank Melli of Melli Productions, and Lynda Fanning, MA, MPH, RD, and made possible by a generous grant from Community Action on Obesity. This tool educates budget-constrained families on how to seek out and choose healthy selections in their local supermarkets. The film also shows families how to recognize and resist marketing techniques commonly used in grocery stores that might otherwise lead to unhealthy purchases. In this session, participants will learn how to use this video and its accompanying handouts as tools to illustrate and discuss healthy food shopping and meal preparation.
Presentation (PDF)
Handout 1 (PDF)
Handout 2 (PDF)
Handout 3 (PDF)

Healthy Portsmouth: Achieving Policy, Environmental, and Systems Change through Community Collaboration

Healthy Portsmouth, an ACHIEVE community, developed an innovative coalition leadership model to influence city-wide policy, systems and environmental change to improve nutrition, activity, and tobacco smoke exposure. This session will cover the successes and challenges of promoting neighborhood walkability, conducting a multi-sector assessment using the CDC CHANGE Tool, and developing multi-media healthy messaging to build partnerships and engage stakeholders.

Developing an Intervention Evaluation Toolbox: Experience from the T.E.E.N.S. Program

Significant resources are being invested in interventions designed to reduce the prevalence of obesity and associated co-morbidities among youth. This session will assist participants in program and evaluation design as part of pediatric obesity interventions. In addition, an interactive panel discussion will be held with research faculty from the T.E.E.N.S. Adolescent Healthy Weight Management Research Program at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Presentation (PDF)

Does Obesity Pass the Test? An Analysis of Childhood Obesity and Academic Performance

Research indicates that overweight children on average have lower test scores than healthy weight students. This session will highlight research behind how childhood obesity impacts school cognitive outcomes. In addition, participants will more fully understand the need for policies and programs promoting healthy weight to ultimately lead to improved health and academic performance.
Presentation (PDF)

2011 Walk to School Day – Hike It! Bike It! I Like It!

(Begins at 7:15 a.m., includes trip to local school, follow up session upon return)
By walking or bicycling to school, students can easily incorporate exercise into their day. During this session, participants will join Crestview Elementary School as they partner with local organizations to raise awareness, promote healthy habits, and celebrate the 2011 International Walk to School Day. Following the trip, participants will return to the conference hotel for an abbreviated session which will outline new ways to encourage safe walking and biking throughout the year with Safe Routes to School programs and grant opportunities.

Life’s Better Outside: Maximizing Partnerships with Parks and Recreation

Kids need at least 60 minutes of active and vigorous play each day to stay healthy, and one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to meet this goal is by playing outside. National, state, and local parks and recreation offer an important role in maximizing the time spent outdoors by adults and youth. This session will highlight innovative partnerships with local parks and recreation to increase opportunities for physical activity.
Presentation 1 (PDF)
Presentation 2 (PDF)
Handout

Concurrent Sessions 4

Student Cooking Clubs: Impacting Healthy Eating Habits

Interested in forming a cooking club at your school? The School Health Initiative Program (SHIP) has had great success forming cooking clubs in the Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools. Session participants will learn why cooking clubs are a popular and proven strategy for providing nutrition education to students, staff and families. Participants will also learn how to engage students, Child Nutrition Services staff, and parents as advocates for healthy changes to school meal programs.
Presentation (PDF)
Handout

Advocate, Activate, Act! Strategies from the Northern VA Healthy Kids Coalition

The Northern Virginia Healthy Kids Coalition (NVHKC) works to engage the entire Northern Virginia community in collaborative, family-focused efforts to promote better health for children of all ages. With the 9-5-2-1-0 campaign, the NVHKC has promoted the messages of healthy eating and physical activity to combat childhood obesity. In this session, coalition leaders will discuss building coalition capacity; methods to build and sustain community partnerships; creating health messaging; and utilizing social marketing campaigns.
Presentation (PDF)

Breastfeeding: The First Step in Obesity Prevention

Breastfeeding provides numerous health benefits for both mother and baby. In this session, participants will hear new research findings which demonstrate the benefits of breastfeeding in preventing childhood obesity and learn local strategies for promoting breastfeeding. In addition, experts will share strategies for developing a community action plan to encourage breastfeeding and will discuss sample policies to support breastfeeding locally.
Presentation 1 (PDF)
Presentation 2 (PDF)

What is the Tipping Point of Childhood Obesity?

Pediatricians measure BMI (Body Mass Index) for children and can determine if a child is”obese” or “overweight” but new research indicates that early recognition and prevention of this condition could be a key to reducing childhood obesity in later years. Participants in this session will hear from Dr. John Harrington MD of Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk regarding his research findings related to identifying the “tipping point” age for overweight pediatric patients. He will discuss the early signs of obesity at various stages: prenatally, early postnatally, infancy and during the toddler years.

Tame the Tube: Strategies for Reducing Screen Time

Children spend more time sitting in front of electronic screens (screen time) than any other activity besides sleeping. Too much screen time can lead to low levels of physical activity and is a risk factor for overweight and obesity. In this session, representatives from SPARK will highlight strategies and policies to promote physical activity and reduce screen time in school, after school, and early childhood settings.
Presentation (PDF)

Long-Term Consequences of Childhood Obesity

What will America look like in 10 years or 20 years if current rates of childhood obesity continue? Will the tress of skyrocketing chronic disease rates overwhelm our health care system? Or will the healthy choice son become the easy choice with fewer societal barriers to wellness? Join this distinguished panel of presenters to further examine the potential impact of childhood obesity on health care, employers, community-based services, families and more. This session will highlight new ways to consider public health policy and services as well as discuss the synergy created when the public and private sectors collaborate.
Presentation 1 (PDF)
Presentation 2 (PDF)
Presentation 3 (PDF)