Hello, all! It looks like it has been a month since I have posted about my progress with the Adopting Healthy Habits project. I have been meaning to post, but life is sometimes just too busy (as I’m sure you all know). Lots of things have happened over the last month, so I shall get right into it!

In my last post, I talked about going to a meeting with the tri-county coalition that Adopting Healthy Habits (AHH) formed to help create changes the promote healthy eating and physical activity in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. My supervisor, Tisa Hill, presented the results of a phone survey that AHH created to find out more about the availability and use of opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating in the North Country. Everyone in the tri-county coalition discussed the implications of these findings, and I created a list of next steps for how to use these survey results.

We also discussed the topic of worksite wellness. I compiled a few examples of worksite wellness programs and a list of websites and resources for worksite wellness materials to distribute at the meeting. After the meeting, my supervisor and I decided to create a survey that each county can use to evaluate what types of worksite wellness programs CCE employees want in their local offices.

After the meeting, I worked on creating an easy-to-read summary sheet of the phone survey results for the members of the tri-county coalition to distribute to legislators, local community leaders, and local businesses/organizations. Our hope is that this results summary will give legislators and organizations encouragement to start initiatives that promote healthy eating and physical activity.

I have also worked on a number of other things since the tri-county meeting. I am currently analyzing the AHH media budget to figure out how much we paid for advertising, what was actually played/printed in the media, and how many people were reached. I am also helping another student conduct card sort interviews in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence Counties that will help us understand how lower-income parents view the causes of childhood obesity and which individuals and organizations are most responsible for preventing childhood obesity. We just piloted the card sorts in St. Lawrence county, and we are currently making revisions. Next week, we will travel to the North Country to conduct the interviews on a larger scale in all three counties.

Stay tuned for more news about my work with the Adopting Healthy Habits project!

Hello, everyone! This is my first post on the CCE blog, but I am currently in the second full week of my internship. I have already done a lot with Adopting Healthy Habits (AHH), and there are many exciting things happening. Over the summer, I will be assisting AHH initiatives in Jefferson, St. Lawrence, and Lewis counties to facilitate the promotion health and well-being and help prevent childhood obesity in these rural counties.

So far, I have identified gaps in the evaluation of mini grants that were awarded to various schools and organizations in Jefferson County. These grants are designed to support programs in these organizations that promote health within the surrounding community (especially in low-in come neighborhoods). Over the next few weeks, I will work with Tisa Hill and Dr. Jamie Dollahite on how we can create measures that will eliminate these mini grant evaluation gaps.

I have also reviewed the main online, print, television, and radio news sources for these three counties. We are looking for articles, videos, audio recording, etc. that promote healthy eating, physical activity, CCE events, and reports of programs from the  St. Lawrence Health Initiative. We will be launching a media campaign promoting AHH initiatives and its partnerships with these counties.

I will be traveling to Lewis county tomorrow evening to explore the three counties with two of my coworkers. We will also be attending a meeting of the the tri-county coalition to discuss results of a recent phone survey of the three counties that AHH conducted as well as the next steps for the coalition regarding promoting healthy eating and physical activity programs.

Tune in soon for another post about the tri-county coalition meeting. Hopefully I will have some pictures of my adventure through the three counties as well.