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Parents as Champions for Healthy Schools
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Helping to Promote Student Success
The Parents as Champions for Healthy Schools Project provides regional family leadership development workshops to engage families in advocacy for healthier school environments. The Project is part of SchoolHealthNJ, an initiative of the NJ Department of Health, which incorporates the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) framework. Parents as Champions staff conduct workshops throughout the state.
Parents as Champions for Healthy Schools Workshop
Our parent engagement workshop provides parent teams with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to partner with school staff to create healthier school environments. In the workshop, parent teams from schools in the region learn about school health, develop advocacy skills, determine an area of need in their school, and create an action plan to address that need. Parent teams that complete the workshop have an opportunity to apply for a grant in collaboration with their school administration to implement their action plans.
The WSCC model, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emphasizes that each child, in each school, in each of our communities deserves to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged. Parents play an important role in promoting healthy schools.
Our parent engagement workshop encourages families and school staff to work together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of students, through the 10 components of the WSCC model:
- Health Education
- Nutrition Environment and Services
- Physical Education and Physical Activity
- Health Services
- Physical Environment
- Social and Emotional Climate
- Counseling, Psychological and Social Services
- Employee Wellness
- Parent Engagement
- Community Involvement
Resources & Materials
- Alliance for a Healthier Generation | Register with your school for access to free information and resources to promote healthy eating and physical activity at school
- Action for Healthy Kids | Register for free and gain access to Parent Leadership resources, including archived webinars and fact sheets to promote healthy eating and physical activity at school
- Parent School Advocacy Toolkit | From the Chef Ann Foundation
- Parents for Healthy Schools | Resources from the CDC
- National PTA (Healthy Lifestyles) | Ideas and resources for a healthy school
- Sustainable Jersey for Schools | Grant opportunities and best practices for health and wellness actions at schools
- Healthy Schools Network, Inc. | A clearinghouse with resources on children’s environmental health in schools (avoiding exposure to toxic materials)
- WholeLife NJ: Eat, Play, Parent | This app presents resources for healthy meals, active living, important health topics and parenting tips and tools on one user-friendly platform. Download from the App Store or Google Play.
Articles by SPAN Staff
“Parent Engagement in Healthy Schools.” | EP Magazine (February 21, 2017): Describes the importance of parent engagement in school health for children with special needs
Webinar
Parents as Partners for Healthy Schools | Discusses the importance of parents as partners to promote healthy schools, with tips to engage parents as members of the school health and wellness team. Accompanying Handout (PDF) and Key Webinar Slides
The New Jersey Family Engagement Hub is a project of SPAN funded by the U.S. Department of Education.