Champions for Change

Champions for Change

The Story

Each Friday, Adrienne goes to the farmers market in her small Northern Californian community to buy fruits and vegetables for her family. Two years earlier there was no such place. Nor were there healthy options for children in their schools or other families in their local grocery stores. That was until Adrienne banded together with other Moms and made a difference. She became a Champion Mom and they all became Champions for Change.

The Story

How could the California Department of Public Health convince low income moms that not only did they need to take a more active role in the health of their families and communities but that they could do so even with very limited resources. Champions for Change focused on empowering moms by showing them how other moms have achieved healthier results.

The Story

In order to create social environments that enable low-income Californians to eat healthy and be more physically active, it was critical that we have the right infrastructure and partners to get our story out. The Network for a Healthy California consists of 11 Regional Networks serving all 58 counties in California. The Regional Networks include over 130 local agencies, including school districts, county offices of education, local health departments, faith-based organizations, youth agencies and local government councils.

The Story

In 2007, the Network reached over 10 million low-income Californians – more than 90% of California ’s total low-income population.

Internally, a Network Steering Committee that includes multiple representatives from all 11 regions and agencies; conduct bimonthly meetings (allows key stakeholders to have a voice in all state program decisions). Monthly conference calls with all Regional Networks (brief, strategize and update contractors/agencies on programs, events etc.) and annual leadership conferences for Network agencies and their staff are held. Regional training related to media, nutrition education, and empowerment/leadership (provides opportunities for growth and development) ensure that we are all telling the “same story” and we use online surveys on regular basis (e.g., survey monkey, customer satisfaction surveys) to allow stakeholders to have a voice in programs and decisions).