The Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program is now accepting applications for awards for eleven grantee communities in 2019. The Safe Routes to Parks Activating Communities program provides tailored technical assistance for eleven communities to develop Safe Routes to Parks action plans and awards $12,500 to each community to begin implementation of those plans. Applications are due by 11:59 PM PT on December 10th, 2018.
Continuing education is an important part of any professional’s career and the work they do. Not only do CEUs help keep accreditations current, but they also keep you in the know about the most current practices in your field. The Leadership Summit Planning Committee always keeps CEUs in the forefront. This year, the Leadership Summit has been approved for the following CEU accreditations: Dietitians, Social Workers, and Educators. Planners and CHES/MCHES CEUs are still pending approval by the appropriate governing organizations.
Dieticians and Educators
Participants may receive RD/RDN/DTR/NDTR CEUs for up to eight hours based on the Summit sessions that are attended.
Educators can get up to eight CEU hours based on the Summit sessions that are attended. Participation certificates will be provided for those seeking credits for renewal of their SC professional educator certification. Credits are subject to the approval of the participant’s educational district or entity. In order to receive renewal credits via this option, the educator must provide:
The allotted hours for Dietitians and Educators are as follows:
October 29, 2018
October 30, 2018
Social Workers
Participants may receive CEUs for up to eight hours based on the Summit sessions that are attended. Four Summit sessions led by a MSW/LMSW qualify for Social Work CEUs. See allotted hours below:
October 29, 2018
October 30, 2018
Sessions Qualifying as Social Work CEUs:
CHES/MCHES
Eat Smart Move More South Carolina has applied for CEUs through the appropriate governing organization. We are confident that all Leadership Summit sessions will be approved once again.
To get CEU credit, you must be registered for the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities. Upon arriving at the registration desk, you will be directed to a CEU table where you will complete a sign-in sheet using your name, email address, and other required identifiable information. Following the Leadership Summit, you will receive appropriate documentation via email.
If you haven’t reregistered for the Leadership Summit, click here! Early bird registration ends Friday, October 12.
Some of American’s healthiest schools are in South Carolina. Twenty-five schools were among a total 461 recognized recently as “America’s Healthiest Schools” by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a national organization that empowers kids to develop lifelong, healthy habits.
The schools earned the distinction by successfully meeting a rigorous set of criteria for serving healthier meals and snacks, getting students moving more, offering high-quality health and physical education, and empowering school leaders to be healthy role models.
South Carolina’s healthiest schools are:
Anderson School District 4
Pe
ndleton Elementary School
Pendleton High School
Riverside Middle School
Townville Elementary School
Berkeley County School District
Sangaree Elementary School
Dorchester County School District 2
Alston Middle School
Lexington County School District 1
Midway Elementary School
Newberry County School District
Newberry Middle School
Mid-Carolina Middle School
Richland County School District 1
Bradley Elementary School
Brockman Elementary School
Caughman Road Elementary School
Dreher High School
Eau Claire High School
J.P. Thomas Elementary
Logan Elementary School
Rosewood Elementary School
Satchel Ford Elementary School
W.G. Sanders Middle School
Watkins Nance Elementary School
Hopkins Middle School
Lower Richland High School
Southeast Middle School
Spartanburg School District 3
Cowpens Elementary School
All of the award-winning, meet or exceed federal nutrition standards for school meals and snacks, offer breakfast daily, implement district wellness policies and update progress annually, and provide students with at least 60 minutes of physical education per week and ensure physical activity throughout the school day.
To view the complete list of America’s Healthiest Schools visit HealthiestSchools.org.
Jump start your Leadership Summit experience by attending one of two pre-conference workshops that will arm you with tools, information, and inspiration to ignite your community’s healthy eating and active living strategies. The best part about the pre-conference workshops is that they’re a bonus and included in the cost of registration!
Our friends at ALTA Planning + Design in Greenville are providing you with an opportunity to learn more about inspiring your community to help sustain a culture of physical activity. We all know that physical activity is an important part of healthy lifestyles. That’s why we work hard to ensure all community members have access to safe places for physical activity, whether it be through wayfinding signs, sidewalk improvements, bike lane additions, or any other component of making the environment safer.
John Cock with ALTA Planning + Design will make you think about what it takes to inspire and sustain a culture of physical activity. He will use his experience designing, developing, and implementing biking and walking programs and share what it takes to develop local bike/walk programs, how to identify and engage community volunteers in the launch of programs, and strategies for evaluating program success. He will engage you in a discussion about the role of various community partners, including health department staff, advocates, local government staff, school district staff, and others.
While some will attend the ALTA Planning + Design workshop, others will be learning about Live Healthy South Carolina. Our partners at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) will dive into a new initiative in partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina that focuses on improving the health of every South Carolinian.
In our work, we realize that we can’t accomplish our goals alone. It takes a team of partners and a lot of collaboration to reinforce our message of making the healthy choice, the easy choice. SCDHEC and the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina have joined forces to created Live Healthy South Carolina: The South Carolina State Health Improvement Plan. SCDHEC’s Barbara Grice and Suzanne Sanders will educate you on the first statewide health assessment and improvement plan and how you can use this tool to guide your community work. It’s a framework for building partnerships across healthcare, public health, and community sectors, sharing data to establish priorities for health improvement, and aligning resources whenever possible.
When you choose to attend the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities, October 29-30, at the Spartanburg Marriott, please make sure you choose one of our pre-conference workshops. Remember, they’re included in the cost of registration. Register today!
Over the years, research has told us that good nutrition, and physical activity leads to healthy students, good grades, and improved classroom performance. It’s part of the culture of health mission we all seek. And Spartanburg School District Six is leading the way in school nutrition through its Farm to School program and its very own farm.
Superintendent Dr. Darryl Owings has been on a mission to provide the more than 10,000 students in District Six with organic fruits and vegetables at meals and hands-on agriculture education opportunities. He has led a farm Initiative, in partnership with Spartanburg County Foundation, Upstate Forever, and Cragmoor Farms, to provide locally grown produce as an alternative to precooked meals. The farm is a 49-acre tract of land in Roebuck, SC that produces enough fresh fruits and vegetables to feed students in the district. They even host a farmer’s market for the community.
District Six students are actively involved in the growing process from germinating seeds in the greenhouse, transplanting the seedlings into the garden, and harvesting the fruits and vegetables for the schools and the community. Some students work on the farm while others learn with gardens and greenhouses at their schools. Some of the produce they’ve planted include cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and watermelon.
One of the first steps Dr. Owings took to achieve his goal was to cancel the district contract with a major school food service company. He had to hire cafeteria employees, who went through culinary training to learn new methods of cooking and recipes utilizing the fresh produce. After years of heating up processed, frozen, and canned foods, the district has returned to cooking scratch-made and healthy meals that benefit their students’ health.
Dr. Darryl Owings will be one of three keynotes speakers at the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities, October 29-30, at the Spartanburg Marriott. He’ll give insight into how his district was able to make impactful changes to the school cafeteria and classroom. Catch his address on Tuesday, October 30 in Spartanburg.
Registration for the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities is open!
Creating a culture of health in our state cannot be done by one person or one entity. It takes a team of dedicated people who can motivate the community to get engaged and make healthy change happen. Cherokee County has made great strides in improving their obesity rate through a collaboration of many partners. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) noticed and offered one of those partners a chance to increase the momentum.
High school teacher Christina Cody was selected to participate in RWJF’s Culture of Health Leaders program in 2017. This highly competitive program is a leadership development opportunity for people working in every field and profession who want to use their influence to advance health and equity. According to the RWJF website, “our leaders will be prepared to collaborate and provide transformative leadership to address health equity in their communities.”
In a rural county that didn’t have the best health indicators data, Cody became active in her community and used her influence as a teacher to help create fit2getherCCSD, a wellness initiative created by students. By joining forces with Eat Smart Move More Cherokee County, the public health taskforce of a local community organization, KNOW(2), Cody and her youth leaders began to make a difference.
“As a high school teacher and student wellness advocate, I believe youth empowerment and partnerships can create the Culture of Health all people deserve while also building tomorrow’s community leaders,” says Cody.
Through the Culture of Health Leaders program, Cody is connected to a national network of leaders in areas such as futures and change management, health equity, and social innovation. These leaders provide valuable knowledge and coaching to strengthen individual leadership plans. Cody’s plan consists of self-assessment, leadership development goals, and plans for continued growth and impact after the program is completed. During her third and final year of the program, she will implement a strategic Culture of Health initiative.
According to their website, Cody’s chosen initiative will focus on chronic disease and childhood obesity. She says, “My rural southeastern community of Cherokee County, faces chronic disease and childhood obesity trends that continue to plague our families, dangerously diminishing the quality of life for ethnically, socioeconomically, and geographically distributed groups. Our youth can be powerful forces in identifying community needs and in being agents of change. Students, schools, and partners can be collective impact champions in meeting those needs, ensuring that health for all is a priority.”
Christina Cody will be one of three keynotes speakers at the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities, October 29-30, at the Spartanburg Marriott. She’ll provide insight into the RWJF Culture of Leaders program, and motivation for attendees to go home and have an impact on the health of their community. Catch her address on Tuesday, October 30 in Spartanburg.
Registration for the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities is open!
Coalition work isn’t always easy. Often, health professionals and community partners can get burned out on their hard work towards achieving healthy eating and active living goals. At the 2018 Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities, keynote speaker Fran Butterfoss, Ph.D., MSEd., will reignite the spark for community coalition work.
During her keynote presentation, “Ignite: Getting Your Coalition or Partnership Fired Up for Change,” Butterfoss will address the challenges that community coalitions face when working with limited resources to accomplish their goals.
“Health professionals and community partners often feel burned out by working harder, not smarter to accomplish organizational or community goals related to promoting healthy eating and active living,” says Butterfoss. “They may be frustrated by difficulties in recruiting and retaining diverse and active partners, finding sustainable financial and material resources, resolving conflict and making decisions or creating effective strategic/action plans.”
As President of Coalitions Work, a group that helps coalitions build and sustain community change efforts to promote health and prevent disease, Butterfoss has seen these scenarios play out repeatedly. She’s even written best-selling books about the topics: Coalitions and Partnerships in Community Health and Ignite! Getting your Community Coalition Fired Up for Change.
Like the name of her second book, her keynote presentation at the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities will focus on four stages of building coalitions:
She will talk about the structure and processes that coalitions and partnerships need to manage themselves; develop their staff, members, and leaders; plan and carry out effective strategies; evaluate what they do; and sustain themselves long enough to accomplish their goals. Butterfoss will provide attendees with the spark and practical tools that will help to build capacity for community work.
“Coalitions are powerful vehicles for building the skills of professionals and volunteers, thereby empowering them to advocate and act on behalf of priority populations within their communities,” says Butterfoss.
With clients such as the Alliance for a Healthier South Carolina, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society, Butterfoss and her team at Coalitions Work have taught countless public health coalitions and partnerships—across the country and at all levels—to build and sustain community change efforts. Their work empowers these groups by building capacity and enhancing their ability to effect positive changes in the health of the communities they serve.
Butterfoss earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing and master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania. After 15 years, she decided to get her doctor’s degree in public health promotion and education from the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health while her husband was stationed at Fort Jackson. In addition to her work at Coalitions Work, she is a professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
The Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities will be held October 29-30 at the Spartanburg Marriott in Spartanburg, SC. It’s the only statewide conference that unites healthy eating and active living content specialists and decision makers from South Carolina. Early bird registration is open until October 5th. Scholarships are available for those who are in need of a reduced registration fee.
For more information, including pre-conference workshops, visit the Leadership Summit for Healthy Communities website.
More than 100 teenagers and adults from across South Carolina attended the 6th Annual Youth Summit on July 27th at The Meeting Place Church in Columbia to learn about youth-led policy changes and how to advocate effectively. Hosted by the Healthy Young People Empowerment (HYPE) Project and Eat Smart Move More South Carolina, the Summit featured Leading to Change, a nationally-recognized team building and engagement training agency.
“Leading to Change brought tons of energy to this year’s Summit,” says Trimease K. Carter, ESMMSC youth engagement manager. “Their sessions incorporated singing, dancing, inspiration, and motivation. Based on evaluations and feedback, both youth and adult participants had a great time.”
HYPE Project teams from Orangeburg, Anderson, Kershaw, Laurens, Spartanburg, and Richland counties presented videos on their successes in establishing policy and environmental changes in their communities. Videos highlighted the worked youth have done to implement the following changes:
This year’s Youth Summit also featured six breakout sessions addressing leadership and youth engagement skills. Leading to Change led four breakout sessions where attendees learned about the true colors of their powerful leadership style and about diversity, culture, and commonalities you can’t see.
Kathryn Johnson of LiveWell Kershaw, led a session for youth titled “Hope is Not a Plan of Action.” During this session, attendees identified something they wished to accomplish, and took that “hope” and turned it into “action” by developing a realistic plan.
Finally, three students from TedXYouth@Columbia facilitated a student-led session where participants had a reasoned, informed discussion around a set of current, controversial topics.
“This year’s breakout sessions were a great mix for youth and adults. We hope that attendees learned something that they can take back to their families, schools, churches, and communities,” says Carter.
You can see pictures from the Youth Summit on the ESMMSC Facebook page, and all HYPE Team Videos are on YoutTube.
First Place
Anderson County
Second Place
Laurens County
Third Place
Richland County
Communities across the country are reshaping their neighborhoods, schools, and businesses toward health, opportunity, and equity. Each of these trailblazing communities—urban, rural, tribal, large, and small—face a myriad of challenges. The RWJF Culture of Health Prize celebrates communities like these that are making health a priority for all—especially for those facing the greatest barriers to good health.
Spartanburg County was one of those qualifying communities in 2015 when they won the RWJF Culture of Health Prize. County leaders were facing an alarming teen pregnancy rate, high hospital costs associated with low-income residents and social determinants of health, and a need to revitalize, re-energize, and reshape life for residents of the Northside neighborhood. Leaders poured their energy into these initiatives and turned things around. The RWJF Culture of Health Prize recognized their efforts.
Read more about Spartanburg’s Spirit of Hope
RWJF wants to hear your community’s inspiring story of collaboration, action, and results. Tell them how you are working together to ensure that all residents have the opportunity to thrive. Your community could win the RWJF Culture of Health Prize.
Find out if your community is eligible
Up to 10 winners will each receive $25,000, join a growing network of Prize-winning communities, and share their accomplishments, lessons learned, and stories with the nation.