California’s local and federal funding provides enrichment services in 4,500 SNAP-Ed eligible afterschool programs. To assess the potential of SNAP-Ed to introduce such efforts system-wide (ST5), the California Department of Public Health’s Network for a Healthy California worked with the Center for Collaborative Solutions (CCS), a nonprofit specializing in public education. CCS conducted formative research to produce Changing Lives, Saving Lives—A Step-by-Step Guide, which was published in 2010 and 2015. Co-funding from The California Endowment, Kaiser Permanente, and the Packard Foundation extended training to more sites (ST7, LT9), resulting in 32 CCS-certified Healthy Behaviors Initiative (HBI) learning centers affiliated with more than 800 schools. Evaluation found positive changes in health behaviors, organizational and community environments, and policies (LT5, LT6). HBI standards contributed to the National Standards for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity in Out-of-School Time Programs(LT7). Senator Jackson (ST6) sponsored Senate Bill 949, which established the Distinguished After School Health (DASH) Recognition Program within the California Department of Education and recognized HBI standards as criteria (LT11). A sustainability plan, with the goal of 70 percent of California’s afterschool sites being DASH-recognized in five years, is being implemented (LT10).
More than 500 children from the Sacramento START program, an HBI Learning Center, performed a hula hoop routine to music from the 1950s at Cesar Chavez Park on July 15, 2014. Sacramento START partnered with Kellee McQuinn, founder of KidTribe to create the choreography and training for the event. KidTribe is an acclaimed children’s fitness program that has also held events at the White House Easter Egg Roll and Nickelodeon Worldwide Day of Play.
Editor’s Note: While this write-up does not directly demonstrate how the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework was applied, it is an example of how to describe the evaluation frame work indicators that are referenced within the text in parenthesis.