Color Me Healthy/Salud Primero
Lifelink is lowering the inicidents of childhood and adult obesity and diabetes through the innovative Color Me Healthy/Salud Primero (Health First) intergenerational nutrition and exercise program.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Candace
Last Name
Gomez-Crisman
Website
Organization
Lifelink Corporation
Country
United States
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
Lifelink Corporation
Organization Website
Organization Phone
630-521-8050
Organization Address
331 York Rd. Bensenville, IL 60106
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
Organization Country
United States
Your idea
Name Your Project
Color Me Healthy/Salud Primero
Country your work focuses on
United States
Describe Your Idea
Lifelink is lowering the inicidents of childhood and adult obesity and diabetes through the innovative Color Me Healthy/Salud Primero (Health First) intergenerational nutrition and exercise program.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
LIfelink's Head Start/Early Head Start (HS/EHS) programs serve 484 low-income children and their parents. Lifelink's Healthy Families America program serves 155 pregnant Latina teens, their babies, and their partners. Lifelink combined the three programs to reach the highest number of families by adapting the evidence-based and award-winning Color Me Healthy curriculum targeting 3 - 5 year-olds, with original adult health, nutrition, and exercise curriculum to support life-style changes to drastically reduce obesity and diabetes among minority populations. A parent's health educational program, Salud Primero (Health First), compliments the children's programming to support whole family health.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
Parents indicated through surveys and high workshop attendance that the subjects of child and family health, and nutrition and exercise specifically, were topics of deep interest. Of the 525 possible survey takers, 489 asked forincreased health education workshops for this next school year. Many also indicated that they had made significant life-style changes regarding nutrition and exercise, but that it was also being shared with other and extended family members.
Problem
The Centers for Disease Control indicators suggest that America’s poor are especially hard hit due to a multiplicity of factors: the lack of neighborhood grocery stores carrying fresh fruits and vegetables, the rising cost of nutritious foods, as well as fewer safe parks and play spaces for exercise. This is compounded by the ease and lower cost of selecting calorie-laden fast foods that are heavily youth-marketed and accessible in most American communities.
Actions
Trained 40 teachers and staff in Head Start/Early Head Start and the Healthy Families DuPage program in the Color Me Healthy™ and Salud Primero curriculum;
Implemented Color Me Healthy™ on a daily basis at six Head Start centers with thirteen
classrooms, reaching 484 children, ages 3 – 5, with support information for their 525 parents;
Implemented nutrition and exercise guidance for 150 pregnant teens/teens with infants to ensure early and regular access to nutrition and exercise concepts and practices
Monitored and measured compliance in Head Start/Early Head Start to provide:
20 minutes of gross motor activities/day
Two structured Color Me Healthy™ Activities per week
One cooking/tasting of new fruits and vegetables/month
Increased parent health workshops that addressed whole family health, nutrition, and exercise
Results
100% of children 3 – 5 years-old participated in the CMH nutrition and exercise curriculum
100% of teen mothers and Head Start parents received nutrition and exercise guidance, either one-on-one or through group workshops
90% of Head Start teachers indicate tracked data that they spend at least 10 – 15 minutes on nutrition topics and/or exercise sessions each day or three 20 minute sessions per week, with at least 30 minutes of additional exercise per week.
100% of children were introduced to healthy fruits and vegetable tastings throughout the year
100% of children (3 - 5) indicated that they understand the correlation between movement, nutrition and health by the end of the program year.
50% of parents indicated that they have made lifestyle changes/family dietary changes over the course of the program year.
100% of the families with children showing significant over or underweight BMIs received interventions and nutrition and prevention tools.
85% of workshop participants who attended trainings showed a marked improvement in knowledge about workshop materials as indicated by pre- and post-tests, testimonials, surveys, and interviews.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Year 1 - Create more targeted evaluation criteria with the DuPage County Health Department so that the model can be used to collect information from preschools across the County to be added to the 5-year County Public Health Plan
Year 2: Develop more rigorous prevention/intervention modalities for childhood obesity and screening
Year 3: Fully deaveloped curriculum that can be shared with preschools, parents, and outreach in hospitals and clinics
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Severe economic constraints would be the only factor. Lifelink has a strong history of successful projects on a large scale that depend on close partnerships with County resources, institutions, and community interaction. An example of a recent Lifelink success is bringing Educare to DuPage - Lifelink’s Child and Family Services division is a lead agency in a coalition of agencies recently funded by the McCormick Foundation and the Buffet Early Education Fund to bring Educare to West DuPage. Through this coalition, Educare of West DuPage will create, provide, and promote the highest quality outcome-based learning environment for families and their children (ages prenatal to 5 years) who are potentially at-risk of school failure.
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$1000 - 4000
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
In what country?
United States
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Lifelink Corporation
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
Lifelink works with over 60 agencies in DuPage and Cook Counties to deliver leveraged programming that can be replicated by partner agencies and expanded into county areas where Lifelink has a smaller footprint. The V.P. of Lifelink Child and Family Services also works with universities social work departments, sits on a statewide Dept. of Human Services board, and provides advocacy on children and family issues statewide. Lifelink's expertise in working with vulnerable, low-income, and non-English speaking populations is critical to the success for programs at other agencies where bilingual staff are less prevalent.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
Linking the program to the DuPage County 5-year health plan (IPLAN) through rigorous evaluations and data collection
Success in interventions for children and their families to reduce obesity, and thus, early diabetes, especially among children
Community outreach to often very isolated immigrant populations living across DuPage. This is especially critical to the minority populations who are noted in the current IPLAN as having no insurance or use the emergency room for family illnesses.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
Head Start parents expressed concern about the rising incidents of obesity and diabetes and other family health issues on a 2007 survey. Program staff of HS/EHS and Healthy Families and the Lifelink Grant Writer brainstormed to create programming that would affect populations across programs to reach as many constituents as possible in a number of ways, including workshops, cooking classes, art projects about nutrition and exercise, a Head Start children's garden, and other health education dissemination methodologies.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
This innovation was a group effort of the program directors and the Grant Writer to affect large scale change to reduce increasingly insidious chronic conditions through prevention and intervention.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
| Attachment | Size |
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| Color_Me_Healthy_Page_3.png | 9.62 KB |
| Lifelink_Corporation_-_501c3_IRS_Confirmation_Letter_2-27-09.png | 359.46 KB |
| COA_LifeLink_Corporation_Electronic_Page_1.png | 478.5 KB |
| COA_LifeLink_Corporation_Electronic_Page_2.png | 75.83 KB |
 | 135 weeks agoCandace Gomez-Crisman said: Hi, Dana: Thank you for your comment. I think this program would work anywhere as long as the participants have some ownership ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 135 weeks agoCandace Gomez-Crisman said: Hi, Moises: Yes. We had a unique hothouse here to launch this program because of the several types of child family programming here. ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 135 weeks agoDana Frasz said: Hello, This looks like a strong program. Have you considered how you could expand this model outside the U.S.? Additionally, please ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 136 weeks agoMoises Herszenhorn said: The idea is very relevant for the country of focus, where obesity is a major health concern. The fact that it includes education in food ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 136 weeks agoCandace Gomez-Crisman updated this Competition Entry. |
| 136 weeks agoCandace Gomez-Crisman submitted this idea. |
