Healthy Places

This year, Urban Initiatives has been selected as a community-based organization to host the Healthy Places initiative. This project is a collaborative effort between the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children at Children’s Memorial Hospital, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Initiative. Urban Initiatives’ involvement includes implementing the Healthy Places to Learn and Healthy Places to Walk projects in the New City community.

For Healthy Places to Learn, Urban Initiatives is partnering with schools that are working to establish a healthy school environment to enhance their efforts and complete the Go for the Gold! application (also known as the HealthierUS Schools Challenge). Schools, with the support of Urban Initiatives, are using the CPS wellness policy to examine options for improving the culture of health and wellness at their school by taking actions such as implementing healthy fundraisers, increasing nutrition education and physical activity in the classroom, engaging parents with access to meaningful nutrition resources, and emphasizing the value of physical education.  Urban Initiatives is supporting schools’ development of Wellness Committees to establish work plans and reach their goals through such actions as cultivating relationships with outside health organizations and bringing in resources to support the Wellness Committees’ efforts. Once schools’ improvements have been realized, they will be ready to apply for the USDA’s HealthierUS Schools Challenge and win a monetary award plus public celebration.

Children spend at least 6 hours each day in school, and usually eat two main meals there. Promoting healthy school environments makes it easier for children to adopt healthy lifestyles for themselves, which will boost their academic performance and enhance their quality of life as they grow into healthy adults. Urban Initiatives is excited to be working at 4 schools and with 2,277 students in the New City community. Libby, Daley and Sherman already offer the Work to Play Program; Fulton is a new recruit. 

The Healthy Places to Walk project examines the community surrounding our partner schools. We have assessed six, half-mile routes between parks and schools, identifying barriers that may prevent residents from active transportation in the community. Throughout the rest of the year, we will be taking actions to improve the physical environment.  Urban Initiatives is happy to be partnering with the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council on this project.

If you are interested in knowing more about Healthy Places please contact April Lillstrom, Healthy Places Program Coordinator, at april.lillstrom@urbaninitiatives.org