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Description of Organization:
Community Healthcare Network (CHN) comprises 10 federally-qualified health centers in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. CHN provides comprehensive, culturally-competent, community-based primary care, mental health and social services to diverse populations in underserved communities, regardless of ability to pay. Service areas include federally-designated medically underserved areas and empowerment zones throughout four boroughs of New York including Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Services include primary and preventive adult health care, pediatrics, reproductive health services, pre- and post-natal care, social services, comprehensive HIV care and case management, mental healthcare, health education, teen pregnancy prevention programs, nutritional counseling, dental care, podiatry and peer education.

Description of project:
Healthy Schools Healthy Families (HSHF) Program is a partnership of Community Healthcare Network, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York and the New York City Department of Education. It is a school-based program that uses a collaborative approach to address the risk and consequences of childhood obesity in the poor urban communities of Washington Heights, East Harlem and West Harlem. In the seven HSHF target schools, a coalition of educators, parents, health care providers and community leaders designed a program that meets the specific needs of their school community. The two goals of this project are to reduce health disparities in obesity and overweight through promotion and expansion of the Healthy Lifestyles Program in public elementary schools, and to improve program evaluation and develop a best practice model of the Healthy Lifestyles program for dissemination and replication in other communities. To meet these goals HSHF has three main program aims: 1) to change community culture to promote healthy lifestyles through leadership development and community engagement, 2) to improve the food environment and healthy eating behaviors in and around schools and 3) to increase the amount of time every child is active. In order to meet these aims, the program has a variety of objectives with corresponding program activities.