Kaiser Permanente Heal Zones:
The HEAL Zone communities of Bayview in San Francisco, Madera in the Fresno area, Modesto, the Monument Corridor in Concord, Richmond, Santa Rosa and South Sacramento were awarded grants as part of Kaiser Permanente’s new $10 million HEAL Zones initiative to combat obesity across Northern California.The vision of the HEAL Zones is that at the end of the three-year initiative communities will be measurably transformed so that opportunities for engaging in healthy behaviors are part of daily life.
The HEAL Zones are a continuation of Kaiser Permanente’s Healthy Eating Active Living [HEAL] Community Health Initiative, a five-year initiative started in 2006 that empowered communities to promote healthy eating and active living through policy and environmental change. Based on the importance of place, the HEAL work resulted in increased physical activity, greater availability of healthy food in corner stores, and improvements in local parks and safe walkways. However, a major learning from the HEAL Initiative was that a greater impact could be made by concentrating the efforts in smaller, more targeted areas. The HEAL Zones will focus on low-income communities where some of the highest obesity rates occur. Changes will be made at the local level — where people live, work and play.
Each HEAL Zone will focus on four specific goals over the next three years:
- Decrease calorie consumption, especially sugar-sweetened beverages
- Increase consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables
- Increase physical activity in community settings, such as parks and safe routes for walking and biking
- Increase physical activity in institutional settings, such as schools and workplaces
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