About Healthy Places

Accomplishments

Overview • FAQ • Community Interventions • Data Briefs • Accomplishments

Streets & Parks

Food

School & After School

Breastfeeding

Community Interventions

General Project

Thank You

STREETS & PARKS SUCCESSES

Partnered with the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Department
of Transportation.
SAFE PARKS GUIDE: 18 city agencies and civic groups formally weighed in on the development of the Make Way for Play safe parks guide to improve pedestrian, bicycle and transit access to Chicago's parks and maximize the use of the public way to promote active living. Also, launched the project website for Make Way for Play where members of the public could participate in the development of the guide by mapping issues that affect access to parks and physical activity in the public way in Chicago.
SAFE PARKS GUIDE: Safe Park Access plan, including community walkability work, listed as one of 10 feature "ideas" in a Sunday Chicago Tribune article about correcting the city's open space shortage.
COMPLETE STREETS GUIDE: Four comprehensive workshops were held over nine days to develop Complete Streets guidelines for Chicago; 100 staff participated from four city and state agencies. Standards and policies that govern roadway design were examined and revised to ensure that future projects accommodate and balance all users/modes of transportation along the city's streets.

FOOD SUCCESSESS

Partnered with the Department of Housing and Economic Development, the Department of Family and Support Services, Illinois Public Health Institute, and Metro Chicago Information Center.
FOOD PLAN: 26 public meetings were held to develop a Food Plan that addresses the intersection of food and obesity in Chicago; 400 people attended one or more of the meetings held across the city over the past year. The Food Plan will help guide public and private efforts to build a healthier food culture in our city.
VENDING: 32,000 City employees will have access to healthier snack and beverage options upon passage of a new vending policy for City buildings; over 300 vending machines will carry healthy items.
MOBILE PRODUCE CARTS: A June 2012 ordinance approved the sale of fresh fruits and vegetables from carts on private property and in 30 designated locations on the public way; 13 mobile produce carts are now on the City's streets and the number of new carts is expected to double for the Spring 2013 season. Vendors may sell whole fruit and vegetables from movable stands as long as half of their business is conducted in communities underserved by grocery stores.

SCHOOL & AFTER SCHOOL SUCCESSES

Partnered with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Healthy Schools Campaign, and the YMCA of Metro Chicago.
CPS SCHOOL PROGRESS REPORTS: 404,150 students reached by the recent addition of a "Healthy School Certified" indicator on CPS' School Progress Reports; the indicator was developed and championed by CPS' Office of Health and Wellness, funded through Healthy Places, and informs the public whether a school has met certain standards and received a HealthierUS School Challenge award. Every school in the District (approx. 680 schools) is now encouraged to nominate a Wellness Champion each year and complete a school health and wellness survey.
SCHOOL AWARDS: Due to Healthy Places, 24 CPS elementary schools with 50% or more students eligible for free/reduced lunch have been officially awarded as part of the USDA's HealthierUS School Challenge and 38 additional elementary schools are currently pending awarding; this means 34,675 CPS elementary school students positively impacted by Healthy Places' Go for the Gold! work where the USDA awards school for making one or more policy change in the areas of healthy fundraising, healthy classroom rewards, physical activity, and nutrition education.
TRAINING: 155 Wellness Champions from over 100 schools participated in one of eleven Technical Assistance Sessions led by CPS Health and Wellness Promotion on nutrition education, physical activity, and the USDA HealthierUS School Challenge application process.
YMCA: Held press event featuring US Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, around the YMCA of Metro Chicago's passage of formal policies implementing new healthy nutrition and physical activity standards in their after-school programs of which 2,000 children across Chicago will benefit: 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity are now required and its food guideline policy must meet criteria set by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation which limits calories, fat, sugar, and sodium in meals and snacks and aims to include a mix of healthy food groups.

BREASTFEEDING SUCCESSESS

Partnered with Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and HealthConnect One.
EDUCATION: Convened first Hospital Breastfeeding Council of Metro Chicago meeting.
EDUCATION: Co-sponsored the National and Local Breastfeeding Initiatives: Physicians' Update with the Suburban Cook County CPPW project to inform and educate over 50 local physicians about local and national Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative projects.
BABY-FRIENDLY HOSPITALS: Conducted outreach to every maternity hospital in Chicago about becoming "Baby-Friendly," an international designation signifying that a hospital fosters practices that promote and support breastfeeding; 15 of Chicago's 19 maternity hospitals (where 80% of deliveries occur) are now in the pathway toward Baby-Friendly Hospital designation, which would provide 32,000 babies and their mothers the most supportive environment possible to encourage breastfeeding from birth.
BABY-FRIENDLY HOSPITALS: Notably, Prentice Women's Hospital is in the Baby-Friendly Hospital pathway; Prentice delivers the most Chicago babies each year, approximately 27% or 12,000 infants annually.
TRAINING: 120 hospital staff were trained to be Certified Lactation Counselors or Specialists; these certifications mean a hospital staff person will be better able to provide mothers breastfeeding support and education starting from the time of birth of their babies.

COMMUNITY INTERVENTIONS SUCCESSES

$800K of Healthy Places' project budget was allotted for work in neighborhoods of poverty and health disparity; a Community Interventions RFP was released
Ten organizations were selected through a competitive proposal process for Healthy Places' Community Interventions initiatives -
- Breastfeeding Initiative: Access Community Health Network, Heartland Human Care Services, Southwest Organizing Project.
- Healthy Schools Initiative: Asian Health Coalition, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Urban Initiatives, SGA Youth & Family Services.
- Corner Store Initiative: Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Southeast Chicago Development Commission, West Humboldt Park Development Council.
- All ten awardees were also funded to conduct walkability assessments in their communities; data were collected on 60 routes to Chicago parks and schools (30+ miles).
438,184 residents reside in Healthy Places' ten community intervention neighborhoods (Armour Square, Brighton Park, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Humboldt Park, New City, Rogers Park, Roseland, South Chicago, West Englewood); nearly a half-million people have access to the community changes achieved through the project's year-long initiatives.
EDUCATION: Conducted Community Action Institute to train the funded community-based organizations and provided numerous follow-up booster sessions.
CORNER STORE INITIATIVE: 20 corner stores in Healthy Places' community intervention neighborhoods were assessed to determine overall store environment including inventory, marketing, and customer behaviors; 6 stores are now consistently stocking and promoting healthier options in communities of highest need. Our corner store initiative was featured in an article by the Chicago News Cooperative and in the New York Times, and included both a city and national perspective.
BREASTFEEDING INITIATIVE: Healthy Places' community-based organizations have been working across the city to successfully provide public education, train lactation consultants, and engage local businesses in Chicago neighborhoods to adopt a more breastfeeding-friendly setting. For example, there has been outreach and partnering with local churches and health centers to distribute educational materials and one organization is even working with a designer for a breastfeeding related mural in their neighborhood.
HEALTHY SCHOOLS INITIATIVE: With guidance and technical assistance from our four awarded community organizations, 16 schools across Chicago have adopted more comprehensive policies around nutrition education and physical activity. For example, some schools have adopted "no junk food" policies or are now using healthier items like smoothies for rewards or fundraisers.

GENERAL PROJECT SUCCESSESS

Chicago's population of approximately three million has benefited from the citywide and neighborhood-level obesity prevention work we've completed.
144 people were funded by Healthy Places as staff; 29 entirely new positions were created, 17 partner/subcontract organizations were funded, and nine consultants/consultant organizations also received funds.
Healthy Places launched its website in December 2011; there have been nearly 30,000 unique visitors as of December 2012.
Healthy Places' original and distinctive public education initiative, Help Make it Happen, was developed for six different formats (print, radio, television, online, transit, and for neighborhood centers); over 25 million impressions were delivered.
Healthy Places staff were invited to present at ten major conferences throughout the project, including a White House Neighborhood Reinvestment Initiative panel on the role of health in neighborhood reinvestment and at a Weight of the Nation Urban Approaches event.
CLOCC staff and partners attended two CDC annual training conferences.
1,850 Chicago parents were surveyed to evaluate the impact of Healthy Places on policy, systems and environmental changes to make places healthier where Chicago families live, work, learn, and play; survey questions were asked on topics such as Health care access and utilization; acute and chronic conditions; nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitude, and behavior; breastfeeding; park usage; and public support for government involvement in healthy living policy and environmental changes in Chicago.
Best Practices and lessons learned have been compiled into five Healthy Places area toolkits, created to educate and train stakeholders in the following: Corner Store Initiative; Healthy School Environments; Breastfeeding Education and Support; Healthy Vending; Neighborhood Walkability.

THANK YOU

Healthy Places staff wish to express their deepest gratitude and appreciation to:

ACCESS Community Health Network
Active Transportation Alliance
Alta Planning + Design
Asian Health Coalition
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
CBS/CBS Community Partnerships
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Chicago Department of Family and Support Services
Chicago Department of Housing and Economic Development
Chicago Department of Public Health
Chicago Department of Transportation
Chicago Park District
Chicago Public Schools
Chicago Transit Authority
Clear Channel
CLOCC Community Programs Coordinators
Cook County Department of Public Health
Current/Sawyer Miller
Designing Streets for People
Farr Associates
GA Communication Group
HealthConnect One
Healthy Schools Campaign
Heartland Human Care Services
Houseal Lavigne Associates
Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Illinois Public Health Institute
In's & Out's
Inner-City Muslim Action Network
JCDeacaux
Live Free Arts & Media Collective
Metro Chicago Information Center
Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates
Nerdy Media
Northern Illinois University
Patrick Barry
Respiratory Health Association
Rider Dickerson
Robert Barnes Design
SGA Youth & Family Services
Southeast Chicago Development Commission
Southwest Organizing Project
Studio V Design
Titan
Univision
Urban Initiatives
West Humboldt Park Development Council
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago