Goal

Our goal is to increase the number of kids in central Indiana at a healthy weight by empowering them to:

  1. Eat healthier meals and snacks, including more fruits and vegetables;
  2. Limit sugary drinks and unhealthy foods;
  3. Increase physical activity; and
  4. Limit recreational screen time.

Mission

Our mission is to ensure that children and youth and their families will have the ability throughout the community to make healthy choices that promote their health, vitality and well-being, including access to affordable, healthy food and meaningful opportunities to play and be active.

Each Task Force will align its actions to this goal and mission.

Interventions

Children and their families must have the opportunity to live in an environment that allows them to make smart choices to eat healthy, play healthy and live healthy.  Therefore, broad-based program initiatives must focus on each of those areas where the children are:  at home, at child care facilities and schools, in their immediate neighborhoods and in the community as a whole.

A community-wide initiative

Jump IN connects everyone in the community: schools, families, employers, employees, health care providers, nonprofits and faith-based organizations. The whole community is involved, because we all must work together to address the problem. 

Sustained improvement requires a change in culture — something that even the best individual programs cannot do on their own. Jump IN for Healthy Kids will serve as a catalyst to achieve the vision that central Indiana children and their families will enjoy and experience a healthy lifestyle within a community environment that supports health, wellness and vitality.

In places as diverse as Mississippi, Philadelphia, California, West Virginia, New York City and New Mexico, coordinated community initiatives have begun turning the trend lines. For example:

  • Philadelphia adopted better school nutrition policies – such as banning deep fryers in school kitchens policies – and required additional physical activity for students. Stores in low-income neighborhoods became parnters and increased offerings of fresh produce. Overall childhood obesity rates dropped 4.7 percent in Philadelphia between 2006 and 2010. Rates for African-American boys plunged 7.6 percent, while those for Hispanic girls were lowered 7.4 percent during the same period.
  • Mississippi cut the percentage of elementary school students who are overweight or obese from 43 percent to 37.7 percent in six years. School-based strategies include nutrition standards, wellness policies, health education, physical education, physical activity breaks and walking/bicycling to school. Faith-based communities encouraged healthy meals and physical activity.
  • New York City helped make fresh produce available in neighborhoods and required calorie information on menus. Guidelines help architects and urban designers create built environments that support active lifestyles. Child care centers are required to improve nutrition and nutrition education and increase physical activity. Obesity rates among the city’s K-8 students dropped 5.5 percent over four years.
  • California removed sugar-sweetened beverages from schools, restricted unhealthy snacks in schools, and required calorie labels on chain restaurant menus. Other tactics included BMI screening, healthy-lifestyle education and Complete Streets initiatives. Childhood obesity rates dropped in 26 counties between 2005 and 2010.
  • New Mexico piloted a program that now is rolling out across the state. Residents are encouraged to walk or bike to school, work and shopping. Schools serve healthier meals, snacks and drinks and open their facilities for active recreation by community members. Obesity rates for New Mexico third-graders dropped 5.3 percent from 2010 to 2012.
  • West Virginia instituted wellness policies and supported healthy eating, physical education and physical activity in public schools. The state began conducting BMI assessments in public schools in 1998 and created an Office of Healthy Lifestyles. Obesity among the state’s fifth-graders dropped 8.6 percent in six years.