Kaiser Permanente, America’s largest integrated health system, awarded a $3.1 million grant to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to expand the Healthy Schools Program in Northern and Southern California, Oregon, Mid-Atlantic states, Colorado and Washington state.
Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program helps districts and schools determine their individual health needs, implement new health policies and practices, and continuously improve the school’s culture of health. The Healthy School Program is a cornerstone of Healthier Generation’s mission to empower kids to develop lifelong healthy habits by ensuring the environments that surround them provide and promote good health. The Program is key to Healthier Generation’s mission to promote healthy habits for kids, and continues to be a signature part of the Kaiser Permanente Thriving Schools initiative.
Healthier Generation and Kaiser Permanente have been working together since 2013, delivering the Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program to 21 school districts, including 330 high-need schools, reaching 198,000 students and 16,500 staff. Together, they have continuously increased their impact on school nutrition, physical education and physical activity for students and staff. Now, with Kaiser Permanente’s new grant and expanded support, they will reach an additional 210,000 students and 17,500 staff in an additional 350 schools.
“All kids deserve the chance to attend a healthy school, and Kaiser Permanente is helping us make that opportunity a reality,” said Dr. Howell Wechsler, chief executive officer of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. “Kaiser Permanente has been an invaluable partner, and their continued support will give even more students the opportunity to develop the healthy habits they need to succeed in and out of the classroom.”
“Healthy kids are better learners,” said Loel Solomon, vice president of Community Health for Kaiser Permanente. “When students eat well and get regular physical activity, they have more opportunities to thrive. By expanding our partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation we will help more of our schools make powerful, sustainable changes, resulting in a healthier school staff, and healthier students ready to learn."
The Healthy Schools Program was launched in 2006 in 13 states and 231 schools, through support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Today, it is the nation’s largest, school-based childhood obesity prevention initiative. It has reached more than 20 million students through its work to improve and sustain physical education, health education, child nutrition and staff wellness policies and programs in more than 40,000 schools. The Healthy Schools Program is now partly funded in several cities nationwide by Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser Permanente is one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of its 11.8 million members and the communities it serves in eight states and the District of Columbia.
Kaiser Permanente Thriving Schools seeks to impact health in schools on a broad scale while addressing high priority health needs in the specific communities where it operates. Thriving Schools collaborates closely with more than 350 schools to provide site-specific programming support, and offers a range of school health resources to thousands more schools across the country.
