Washington State: Empowering Education: Fight Tobacco Use Through Assessments, Standards, Curriculum, and Partnerships
Wisconsin: 60 Minutes to Health and School Success
Strengthening Our Practice: Furthering Our Impact __________________________________________________________________________ Ask Us About - 5.0 CSH - Boston __________________________________________________________________________
Massachusetts CSH Shining the Spotlight on Massachusetts Healthy Schools
Many schools in Massachusetts, like those in other states, have experienced recent cutbacks in their health-related programs. In response, our Coordinated School Health Program created our statewide School Wellness Awards to highlight schools that were still moving forward with positive school wellness efforts and to inspire others to realize ways that they could create healthy school environments without additional funding.
After an extensive review of similar awards by state and national organizations, focus groups and phone interviews, we finalized an application that covered seven areas of school wellness: health policies, health education, physical education, physical activity, nutrition, staff wellness, and tobacco prevention. Of the applications we received, we identified five schools that met the stringent cut-off scores we had selected. Site visits to these schools revealed many new health initiatives and programs that we have been able to highlight, including one school with an energetic nutrition action club and diabetes screening for all students’ families, another with extensive staff wellness offerings, and a third with a successful “Wellness Evening” for families. All five schools were honored in an award ceremony held at the Massachusetts State House, and their accomplishments were publicized through our listserv, press releases to local media outlets, our Coordinated School Health newsletter, and other outlets. We have collected and reviewed applications for a second round of School Wellness Awards, and look forward to collecting and disseminating more local success stories to help build support and enthusiasm for school wellness.
