What is Jump IN for Healthy Kids?

Jump IN is a community-wide effort to empower kids in Central Indiana to live healthier lives! Our children and their families deserve to live in healthy environments with real opportunities to make smart choices to eat healthy, play healthy and live healthy.

Our Mission

To create healthy places, neighborhoods, and communities where families have real opportunities 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.

A Brief History

In 2011, a group of business and civic leaders in Indianapolis began a conversation on what could be done collectively to improve the health of our community. Alarmed by the region’s poor health ranking on surveys such as the American Fitness Index, and informed by the community health needs assessments completed by our major health care systems, this group decided to focus its efforts on improving the health of children and their families. The Founding CEOs included:

  • Charles Bantz, PhD, Chancellor
    Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
  • Len Betley, CEO
    Fairbanks Foundation
  • Robert Brody, CEO
    Franciscan Health
  • Vince Caponi, CEO
    St. Vincent Health
  • Eric Ellsworth, CEO
    YMCA of Greater Indianapolis
  • Dan Evans, CEO
    Indiana University Health
  • Karen Ferguson, Publisher
    Indianapolis Star
  • Matt Gutwein, President & CEO
    Marion County Health & Hospital Corp.
  • Rob Hillman, President
    Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Indiana
  • David Johnson, President & CEO
    Central Indiana Corporate Partnership
  • John Lechleiter, PhD, Chairman, President & CEO
    Eli Lilly & Company
  • Bryan Mills, President & CEO
    Community Health Network
  • Jim Morris, President
    Pacers Sports & Entertainment
  • Ann Murtlow, CEO
    United Way of Central Indiana
  • Jack Phillips, CEO
    Roche Diagnostics Corp.
  • Clay Robbins, President
    Lilly Endowment

Based on research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Founding CEOs agreed to create and fund a multi-year collective impact initiative targeting childhood obesity. Jump IN for Healthy Kids formally launched in January 2014 as the backbone organization of that initiative.

What is collective impact?

Throughout 2014 and into early 2015, Jump IN engaged more than 100 representatives from 85 businesses and civic organizations in several task forces. Learn more about our Task Forces.

We wanted to understand what strategies and programs were already in place in our community and what gaps/barriers existed. These task forces developed a comprehensive set of interventions around nutrition and physical activity that we began implementing in the fall of 2015 as strategies for Healthy Places, Healthy Neighborhoods, and Healthy Communities.