As a result of Leadership for Healthy Communities' first biannual retreat of the year, some grantees vowed to increase awareness of how advertising and the social environment impact children's health, according to results of an evaluation survey. That action item was just one of many that came out of the three-day event, which was held in Miami from March 5-7.

The Leadership for Healthy Communities (LHC) Biannual Miami Retreat was designed to educate about policies and practices impacting childhood obesity from a healthy eating, active living and social environment perspective.

Another aim was to engage participants in thinking strategically on how best to advance the mission of LHC within their membership organizations. All 11 LHC grantees were represented. Joining them were prominent guest speakers who included policy-makers, researchers, and experts on physical education, the built environment, marketing to children and the economics of obesity. Representatives from the the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the national program office (NPO), and a newly formed National Advisory Committee (NAC) also participated.

The highlight of the event, according to the evaluations, was a presentation on "Visionary Physical Education: Policies and Practices to Impact Childhood Obesity," by Miami-Dade County Public Schools Director of Physical Education and Health Literacy Jayne Greenberg. Greenberg also led the retreat participants on a tour of Nautilus Middle School in South Beach. Nautilus recently developed a Wellness Center with "interactive fitness and entertainment systems" that are particularly appealing to today's tech-savvy, multi-tasking youth.

Other survey results indicated that the retreat motivated participants to develop more cross-grantee partnerships, and they vowed to learn more about the research-to-policy link and geographic information systems (GIS).

Next steps? The NPO is working with a newly formed subcommittee to determine the direction of the consensus initiative, which was discussed during the retreat. The goal of this initiative is to present a unified front for the coordinated efforts in promoting healthy communities. With this goal attained, one result would be greater recognition of the program and the efforts of its grantees and their memberships, which could prompt more policy-makers to get involved in efforts to reduce childhood obesity. We will keep everyone posted.

Miami 2008 Retreat PowerPoint Presentations

• Research, Policy, Politics, by Joshua M. Sharfstein, M.D., Commissioner of Health
• LHC Childhood Obesity Update, by Jamie Bussel of the RWJF
• Linking Policy and Research to Address Health Disparities, by Dr. Lyn Kathlene
• Economics of Obesity: The Intfrastructure, by Dr. Kenneth R. Stanton of the University of Baltimore
• For Vince Graham's presentation on Culture Vision and the Public Realm, Dr. Jayne Greenberg's presentation on Visionary Physical Education: Policies and Practices to Impact Childhood Obesity or Susan Linn's presentation on Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, please contact Leadership for Healthy Communities' national program office, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Miami 2008 Retreat Photos

• Grantees at Nautilus Middle School
• Children at Nautilus Middle School
• Panel Discussion: Kameshwari Pothukuchi, Ph.D., Joshua M. Sharfstein, M.D., Lyn Kathlene, Ph.D., and Virginia Caine, M.D.
• Speaker Dr. Kenneth Stanton of the University of Baltimore on the economics of obesity
• Speaker Dr. Jayne Greenberg of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools on policies and practices impacting physical education
• Speaker Susan Linn of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood on the hazards of food marketing to children
• Speaker Vince Graham of I'On on the built environment
  

For analyses and other information, please contact the Leadership for Healthy Communities Communications Director at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .