This toolkit is a result of the collaborative efforts of many policy-maker organizations, which represent public officials from the state and local levels of governance. Since 2007, representatives from these organizations have been engaged in activities including training leaders in strategies to promote healthy eating and active living policies; providing technical assistance to state and city-school teams; and working with rural policy-makers to identify strategies for promoting healthy eating and active living.

How to Use the Toolkit

The strategies outlined in this document are divided into several policy areas in order to increase awareness of the promising and evidence-based policy options to reduce childhood obesity. To facilitate ease of use among policy-makers with various jurisdictions and areas of expertise, this toolkit has been organized into two main sections—Active Living and the Built Environment, and Healthy Eating—each of which is further divided into subsections. Each subsection recommends targeted strategies based on the environmental setting, identifies key stakeholders, outlines policy and program options, provides concrete directions on how to start programs, describes resources that can help inform the process, and includes examples of how other states and localities have achieved progress.

“We are all aware that the rapid rise in obesity rates— particularly among youth—foreshadows serious health problems. For local leaders, the trend also presents quality-of-life and fiscal challenges. That is why a growing number of city and county officials and school administrators see the urgency to collaborate to address this epidemic by making it easier for all residents to live more active lives and eat healthy food.”
 
Robert J. O’Neill, Jr., Executive Director,
International City/County Management Association

Process for Developing this Toolkit

Leadershp for Healthy Communities, a $10-million national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, works with major policy-maker organizations to support state and local leaders in their efforts to reduce childhood obesity through public policies that promote active living, healthy eating and access to healthy foods. The program’s efforts are focused especially on children from racial and ethnic minority groups and those who live in lower-income and rural communities.

The policy approaches and resources within this toolkit represent a collection of current best approaches that have been identified, reviewed and selected by Leadership for Healthy Communities and the policy-maker organizations that have taken part in, or are currently participating in, the program.

The policy options and resources were assessed using data and research from the publications, toolkits and databases of the following organizations: Active Living Research, Active Living by Design, Albemarle State Policy Center, Healthy Eating Research, Institute of Medicine, PolicyLink, Transtria LLC, Prevention Institute, Public Health Law & Policy, Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Trust for America’s Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and program grantee organizations.

Most of the policy options were reviewed based on a scan of more than 100 research articles that linked specific policy actions to positive outcomes in healthy eating and physical activity behaviors, with a focus on research in vulnerable communities. In addition, recognizing that states and municipalities are offering new and innovative solutions to childhood obesity prevention on a continuous basis, we also have included promising practices that Leadership for Healthy Communities and its program grantees believe to be important approaches to childhood obesity prevention. These beliefs are based in part on more than three years of experience providing technical assistance to state, city, county and school officials who are implementing these policies and practices in their localities.

Policy and childhood obesity experts who reviewed this toolkit include: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity, National Policy & Legal Analysis Network, Public Health Law & Policy, Prevention Institute, The Food Trust, Active Living Research, San Francisco Department of Public Health, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, District of Columbia Office of Planning and Leadership for Healthy Communities co-chairs who are state, local and school district policy leaders.

Originally developed in 2009, the toolkit was updated in February 2011 to reflect the latest understanding of the childhood obesity epidemic and the most effective policy approaches to address it.