The Recipients | Childhood Obesity
The following organizations have received childhood obesity grants:
Girls on the Run
Girls on the Run is a non-profit prevention program that encourages preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running. The curricula addresses all aspects of girls' development, including their physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual well-being.
Girls on the Run International (GOTRI) is the parent organization of more than 160 Girls on the Run councils across the United States and Canada. GOTRI creates, trains and supports a network of community-level councils with local volunteers.
New Balance Foundation has helped strengthen and grow GOTR through a council grant program in 2008 and 2009. NBF offers Capacity Building Grants aimed at councils who are well positioned to grow sites within their council. Scholarship grants will also be awarded to councils that serve communities with underserved populations. The program is currently run at the Oak Square YMCA in Brighton, MA, right in our backyard.
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Boston Children's Hospital
Children's Hospital Boston is a 397-bed comprehensive center for pediatric health care and is one of the largest pediatric medical centers in the United States. The hospital is also home to the largest pediatric obesity program in New England, the children's Optimal Weight for Life Program (OWL). OWL was created by endocrinologist Dr. Ludwig, and the program has made great advancement with support from the New Balance Foundation.
OWL is a multi-disciplinary care clinic dedicated to the evaluation and treatment of children who are overweight/obese and/or those with type 2 diabetes. The New Balance Foundation's first multi-year grant has been used to enhance the clinic by creating more comprehensive services for children from low socio-economic families by adding behavorial/mental health, case management, home visiting and combined child/parent education programs, all of which have been proven to improve the child's success rate in optimizing weight level. It has also been used to continue ongoing clinical research.
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Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
The New Balance Foundation made a ten year commitment to Tufts in a far-reaching initiative called "Children in Balance" to combat childhood obesity and improve the long-term health of future generations. This grant funds leadership positions in the areas of research, scholarship, advocacy, training, program-testing and evaluation, and information dissemination. More specifically, the childhood obesity initiative will deepen understanding of effective ways to positively influence dietary and physical activity patterns among children and their caregivers. The mission of Children in Balance is to reverse and prevent childhood obesity utilizing advanced scientific research that will empower individuals and communities to catalyze social change.
The gift also created the New Balance Chair in Childhood Nutrition, as well as three endowed graduate fellowships. With this ten year commitment, Tufts University was able to significantly enhance programs and competencies in childhood nutrition, allowing for growth in research, scholarship, advocacy, training, program testing and evaluation, as well as dissemination efforts. Their aim over the next ten years is to establish a balance between scientific rigor and health action towards the end of improving children's health, both now and in the future.
For more information on Tufts nutrition program, click here.
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Boston Medical Center
The New Balance Foundation awarded a large grant to support children and their families who are overweight or at risk for being overweight. With this funding, the Boston Medical Center (BMC) created the "Nutrition and Fitness for Life Program" to help children and their families make broad improvements in fitness and nutrition through physical activity, behavior modification, education and assessment of contributory medical factors. The Foundation is also the lead underwriter of BMC's "FANtastic Kids," a ten-week after-school nutrition, education and physical activity program for 8 to 13 year-olds.
For more information, please see...
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