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Funding Priorities
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FIT TOGETHER NC (Obesity Initiative)
Program
Fit Together recognizes the limited value of health promotion efforts that focus exclusively on educating individuals about the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. Instead, it adopts the wisdom articulated by a statewide summit of experts, who in 2002, concluded that “comprehensive efforts to change health behavior must foster supportive policies as well as social and physical environments that encourage healthy lifestyles.” Published as North Carolina’s blueprint for fighting obesity, Eat Smart, Move More…NC calls for improving the health of NC communities through policy and organizational change, and forms the foundation for many of Fit Together’s efforts and strategies. To date, the Fit Together program consists of:
- 21 community-based and statewide grants representing an investment of more than $9,000,000. Valuable lessons from these real-world laboratories will be converted into “best practices” that can provide practical guidance for civic, school and business leaders across North Carolina.
- A content-rich Web site containing a broad spectrum of resources available to parents, schools, physicians, local governments etc. In addition to serving as a clearinghouse for the best practices mentioned above, www.FitTogetherNC.org provides access to a diagnostic health risk assessment sponsored jointly by the NC Academy of Family Physicians and the NC Pediatric Society, as well as a directory of resources for nutritional guidance and physical activity and opportunities for local involvement. The site provides practical tools for individuals who may be motivated to improve the health of themselves, their family and their community.
- In November 2005, Fit Together unveiled its newest program entitled Fit Community, a designation and grants program to recognize and reward municipalities’ efforts to promote physical activity, healthy eating and tobacco-free programs, policies, environments and lifestyles.
- The newest phase of Fit Together efforts focuses on outreach to businesses around the concept of workplace wellness. Increasingly, businesses both large and small are demonstrating an interest in helping employees adopt healthier lifestyles that can help counter rising health benefit costs. Research was recently performed to identify dozens of companies in North Carolina that have effectively implemented wellness policies. These ‘best practices’ and other valuable tools will soon be made available on the Fit Together website, where they will serve as a model for other NC businesses to follow. (For details, see Overview.
Fit Together'ss mission and programs continue to be heavily promoted in North Carolina through well-received television commercials, earned media by grantees and community outreach by both HWTF and BCBSNC. Additionally, through a grant previously awarded, programming and public service messaging by UNC-TV has reinforced those paid and earned media efforts. According to the University of Baltimore’s 2005 Obesity Report Card, North Carolina’s state ranking on obesity prevention has gone from an ‘F’ to a ‘B’ in just one year’s time (no state received an ‘A’). Fit Together is a key component as to why such drastic improvements have been achieved.
Partners / Technical Assistance
Experts from Duke University provide technical assistance for all Fit Together grantees. Evaluators from East Carolina University are monitoring the progress of all grantees. Active Living by Design provides technical assistance for the Fit Community program.
