Action for Healthy Kids Active Community Environments Breastfeeding Coalition Business and Industry Community Nutrition Health Care Systems Community Faith

Action for Healthy Kids Project Focus: To provide two free resources to support the physical activity requirements of the 2005 Student Health and Fitness Act in SC schools. PROJECT I: Carolina Panther's Fit Squad Fitness Program Project Description: The Carolina Panther Fit Squad program is an innovative youth fitness program dedicated to health, fitness and fun, and aimed at getting elementary school students (K-5) excited about being physically active with fun and creative activities. Fit Squad features a multimedia fitness and nutrition program for physical education and classroom teachers that is easy-to-use and can be incorporated into the school day. Goal: By November 15, 2006, Fit Squad materials will be distributed to at least 300 Physical Education teachers in South Carolina. By June 1, 2007, 50% of Physical Education teachers receiving Fit Squad materials will have implemented the program in their school. Status on Completion of Activities: Grant funding enabled AFHK to purchase 500 Carolina Panthers Fit Squad kits for dissemination to South Carolina elementary teachers. There were 120 teachers that registered for kits at the annual SC Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (SCAHPERD) Conference on Nov. 10-12, 2006. The Carolina Panthers organization coordinated shipment of Fit Squad kits to these teachers. During the January AFHK state team meeting, a distribution plan for the remaining 380 Fit Squad kits was developed. South Carolina Healthy Schools offered to promote Fit Squad registration information through various professional education list serves. This effort proved successful, as all of the 380 remaining kits were distributed to interested South Carolina teachers. In fact, requests exceeded the AFHK inventory resulting in the Carolina Panthers organization devoting approximately 50 additional kits from their reserve inventory to the AFHK grant program. All 500 plus kits were shipped by April 2007. Status on Evaluation: Evaluation efforts for Fit Squad were two fold: 1) All teachers requesting Fit Squad material were required to complete a registration form that included contact information as well as school name, total enrollment, and county. Information summarized in Table 1 presents a clear picture of the program's impact, particularly the large number of SC elementary students touched by this effort. Fit Squad Kit Distribution in South Carolina Schools # of Counties receiving kits 28 # of schools receiving kits 102 # of kits distributed 500 # of children participating in Fit Squad 61,207 2) In the original proposal, an online survey would be sent to teachers receiving kits in April 2007. These surveys would assess kit usage, lesson plans most liked by teachers, and allowing for an opportunity for teachers to make suggestions for material revisions. Due to delays in kit distribution, the actual survey was not distributed until late May 2007. Table 2 provides a summary of survey results. Although responses were very positive, the program was only implemented for a very short period of time during the 2006-2007 school year. Survey data collected after a full semester or full year of implementation would be more ideal. Therefore, plans are to distribute the survey again during the 2007-2008 school year. Active Community Environments PROJECT I: SC Active Pages Project Focus: The SC Active Pages is a directory of national, state and local physical activity programs. It consists of 5 Chapters (Worksite, School, Individual, Faith and Community). Each chapter will have three sections (national, state and local programs). Each "page" will include a detailed program description, other settings, costs, detailed contact information and website if available. Status on Completion of Activities: The directory is nearly finished. We will just have one more round of requests for local, grass roots, South Carolina programs. We decided NOT to print the directory since it is so large. Primarily, we will disseminate the directory via download on our website. Each section will be downloadable separately. We will also put the directory on CD and will mail it out upon request. Status on Evaluation: The method for measuring success in this project is having a completed directory of best practice programs, which satisfies a need expressed by partners for a concise, consolidated listing to enable implementation of such programs. This document will also be turned into an Adobe Acrobat file and housed on the obesity partnership's website. Another measurement will be the number of schools, churches, worksites and communities that the directory is disseminated to. PROJECT II: SC Healthy Options - www.schealthyoptions.org Project Focus: This project is a comprehensive on line inventory of physical activity facilities in South Carolina. It is searchable by user group (youth, adults, families), county (all counties in the state) and by activity (everything from aerobics to yoga). Status on Completion of Activities: The website is complete. It is outstanding! We have also incorporated two other databases, www.sctrails.net as well as www.activeoptions.org. On one site, users can access all three databases. Presently, we are working on filling in the directory. It is our goal to have a workable database by this fall. In September, we will have a press release with two goals. First, to let users know about the directory and secondly, for providers to be able to add their facilities to the database. In this way, providers will come to us and we will be able to accept or delete on line additions. Status on Evaluation: 1) The method for measuring success in this project is having a completed on line resource inventory. We have a very detailed mechanism to track how many site hits we are getting to indicate that people are accessing and using the inventory. We can also see where they are searching as well as what time they are accessing the database. 2) Please indicate any internal or external factors that might have negatively affected the project. There has been nothing to negatively affect our outcome. All has run smoothly! 3) If you collaborated with other groups on the project, please list them and describe their participation. We did not collaborate with other groups on this project other than our staff and web designer. We did utilize the membership of SCCPPA and SCCOPE to request the local, grassroots physical activity programs occurring in various settings within South Carolina. These requests have not yielded the results that we know are out there. We will attempt one more time. 4) List and briefly describe other sources of funding and/or in-kind support for the project. We partnered with the SC Parks and Recreation Department as well as the University of South Carolina on the Healthy Options website. We have linked both the South Carolina Trails database and the Active Options database within the Healthy Options website. 5) How will the completion of this grant influence future projects? We plan on launching both projects in the fall. I see wide dissemination of both projects throughout the state. We plan on timing this with the announcement of the new Eat Smart Move More…SC Partnership. In addition, we are projecting an expansion to the Healthy Options inventory by creating a similar on line inventory for people wanting to "Eat Smart". This database will be searchable by county as well, and will contain options such as healthy restaurants, lactation consultants, weight loss centers and farmer's markets. Breastfeeding Coalition Project Focus: Development and dissemination of a breastfeeding resource guide. By June 29, 2007, a statewide, community-specific breastfeeding resource guide will be developed and disseminated by the South Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition. Status on Completion of Activities: The Resource Guide is developed and is posted on the internet under www.breastfeedingresourceguide.com. Resources are categorized by geographic area and type of service including but not limited to lactation consultants, hospital lactation services, community services, support groups, pump rental station. The South Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition has had individuals, groups and institutions throughout the state enter their information directly into the guide during the testing phase of the website. Submissions have been reviewed by officers of the South Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition for appropriateness and will continue to be reviewed on an ongoing basis as new resources are added. National resources and links have also been complied for the Guide. The Resource Guide has information pertinent to health professionals and also for the general public. To promote and market the Resource Guide, informational notices will be sent to hospitals, WIC clinics, pediatric, obstetrical and family medicine medical practices, along with other relevant community and statewide organizations, about the availability of the Resource Guide. To keep the Guide current with contact information as accurate as possible, the Resource Guide will be a web-based rather than in printed format. The Guide will have downloadable PDF documents for use as desired by health professionals, physician practices, or the general public. Status on Evaluation: 1) To help evaluate the Breastfeeding Resource Guide, focus groups and key informant interviews with targeted individuals and groups have been conducted. The SC Breastfeeding Coalition served as the first focus group on April 25, 2007. Members of the Coalition were introduced to the Resource Guide and were assisted in entering information about their practices. Members provided feedback on organization, quality and usefulness of information in the Resource Guide. The web designer/project assistant took information away from that meeting to make changes in the categories included in the Guide. Additionally, focus group results provided information for website format changes, making the guide easier to navigate by submitters and consumers. The SC Breastfeeding Coalition Steering Committee has served as a smaller evaluative group, making suggestions and providing feedback to the web designer/project assistant on an ongoing basis. As notices are distributed regarding the Resource Guide, links will be included to contact the web designer/project assistant and Breastfeeding Coalition co-chairs to provide additional input about the Guide. Since the Breastfeeding Resource Guide site will be going live as this grant report is being completed, specific information evaluating the live website is not available. However, evaluation of the website will include monitoring of a log report. The web designer/project assistant will query this report to provide information, such as the number of total hits to the website, the sections of the site that are visited the most, how long visitors remain on the site, and which sections/organizations are being searched the most. The SC Breastfeeding Coalition will include on its July and October 2007 Quarterly meeting agendas to receive feedback from the Coalition about the usefulness of the Resource Guide. WIC breastfeeding peer counselors will assist with further evaluation and monitoring, obtaining feedback about the Resource Guide from clients during one-on-one interviews and support groups. To ensure the Guide remains current, updates and changes can be made as needed at any time. Currently, there have been over 700 hits to the website.  The web designer will develop a short evaluative survey on the site to get feedback from users. The coalition steering committee in conjunction with the web designer will query a login report and evaluative responses/comments in October and December 2007 and April 2008. Changes can be made as needed at any time. 2. If you collaborated with other groups on the project, please list them and describe their participation. Several SC breastfeeding partners had previously attended a Loving Support training ("Using Loving Support to Build a Breastfeeding-Friendly Community") conducted by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As part of ongoing technical support after the Loving Support training, AED and CDC provided assistance to the initial work group for the Resource Guide. Present at this meeting were Emily Corbett, Mandy Frost, Teresa Hill, Bunnie Lempesis, Rachel Miller, Jean Rhodes, Melissa Senf, Peggy Shul, Sharon Spriggs, Mary Stackhouse, Tom Steenhuysen, Karen Sullivan, Rosemary Wenzel. A representative from CDC's Maternal and Child Health branch attended this follow-up meeting and support staff from AED participated through conference call. Assistance included help with process evaluation measures for monitoring the Resource Guide. 3) List and briefly describe other sources of funding and/or in-kind support for the project. SC Breastfeeding Coalition members provided in-kind support and assistance with input of resources during the development of the Guide. The Coalition officers and Steering Committee members, all of whom are employed outside of the coalition (none are paid by the coalition) contributed in-kind support to this project. They include Karen Sullivan, Mandy Frost, Jean Rhodes, Sharon Spriggs, Rachel Miller, Lisa Baker, Teresa Hill and Lin Cook. 4) Please share any additional information relevant to the status of your project. The co-chairs of the SC Breastfeeding Coalition met with the web designer, Tom Steenhuysen, on June 26, 2007 to evaluate the status of the project. Up to this point, the electronic foundation of the site had been established and resources were entered by individuals throughout the state. Coalition steering committee members had submitted information about professional and general organizations which may be of interest to site viewers. After evaluating the status of the Resource Guide, the following changes were agreed upon: 1) Adding a mechanism for lactation consultants to be identified separately from the place of practice so that a consumer can query all lactation consultants in a geographical area; 2) Devising a mechanism for resources to clearly identify their places of practice, i.e., hospital or community practice. When a search is made under the "Hospital" category, the resources that appear should all be identified as hospitals, rather than as an individual working in a hospital; 3) Developing a separate page for resources to login and submit their resource information keeping the home page dedicated just to information about available resources; 4) Developing an evaluative survey for web site users; 5) Clarifying the purpose of the "organization" category. Coalition members and breastfeeding partners throughout the state will be charged with helping to promote and market the Breastfeeding Resource Guide through their individual organizations and businesses. Statewide partners such as the South Carolina Breastfeeding Action Committee, the South Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the South Carolina Coalition for Obesity Prevention Efforts (SCCOPE) will announce the launch of the Breastfeeding Resource Guide on their websites and newsletters. 5)  How will the completion of this grant influence future projects? This project has a dynamic rather than static design, which will allow individuals, organizations and businesses to maintain current and correct resource information. New resources can also be added. Future projects can expand the scope of the site as new types of resources are identified. The South Carolina Breastfeeding Coalition appreciates this unique opportunity to explore the potential of electronic media in making information available to the public. The Breastfeeding Resource Guide has laid a sound framework for disseminating information about not only breastfeeding resources, but hopefully, in the future, policy, legislative efforts, and other projects to further promote, support, and protect breastfeeding in South Carolina. Business and Industry PROJECT FOCUS: To improve the health of South Carolina's work force by way of: PROJECT I: Survey Business, Industries and Municipalities across South Carolina to:     - Assess the market to measure and report the workgroup's performance against SCCOPE established objectives for Business and Industry in South Carolina     - Evaluate and report existing program and/or the need to implement Worksite Wellness Programs in South Carolina STATUS: Complete with interpretation of results and findings published in a report provided in a separate binder. For the most part the business and industry objectives have been met so recommendations were made to revise the objectives to reflect incremental improvement from the baseline survey. It is the intent to repeat the survey if funding is available to evaluate performance against objectives. Data is also being used to help prepare the worksite training meetings referred to below. Please see a copy of the report. PROJECT II: Implement a SCCOPE Worksite Wellness Award to:      - Acknowledge and reward worksites who are already providing wellness programs that are achieving the SCCOPE objectives      - Motivate worksites to implement worksite wellness programs that would qualify for the award STATUS: Application completed, along with judging/scoring criteria and process. Survey indicated 37 employers were interested in applying. Next step is to release award application to employers via email notification to apply online and/or through press release - similar to process used for the survey above. Release expected in July. Plans are to recognize and award winners' at the conference referred to below. Plan to release award application by August 7th with returns by August 31st. Evaluation and selection will be completed by October 1, with awards presented at the October Conference - see below for more information about the workshop/conference. PROJECT III: Develop and implement a worksite training conference to:      - Showcase quality worksite wellness programs that are achieving SCCOPE objectives and that other worksites can learn from      - Help worksites understand the basics of how to implement successful worksite wellness programs so that they will begin funding for and implementation of their own program STATUS: Currently in development for September however SCCOPE is also exploring synching (piggy backing) with other conferences being held in October. B&I workgroup is meeting August 2nd to finalize plans and agenda for workshop/conference. PROJECT IV: Outline how to develop an online resource directory for worksites to provide access to:     - Assist with how to develop and implement successful Worksite Wellness Programs.     - Provide the ability to query the database for local and other resources by type; low cost as well as no cost programs and services.     - Please note: The intent is to be able to outline how to get this project built and budgeted in for the next SCCOPE fiscal year July 1, 2007 - not to build it this year. STATUS: Eliminated due to lack of funding. Due to no future funding being available this activity and the planning for it was eliminated. 2. Please indicate any internal or external factors that might have negatively affected the project. As work began on the development of the survey, the original intent of the survey design to be brief and concise morphed into a longer instrument that included information about worksite activities above and beyond nutrition, physical activity, and weight management i.e. heart disease, stroke, tobacco, and other chronic disease information. We were able to get the basic information needed, which was to test the premise that the objectives were on target or needed revision. It established the baseline to measure current and future performance against measures. Also these additional components caused delay in releasing. We needed more time to get more surveys in to reach our target of 300 surveys. We captured 193 and applying a weighted scoring system helped to alleviate concerns for a valid sample. In addition, the online surveying tool used was satisfactory however was not as robust as it needed to be for querying the data. 3. If you collaborated with other groups on the project, please list them and describe their participation. The workgroup in and of itself represents other groups, experience, and expertise and they were heavily involved in the process. Many are skilled surveyors, data analyst, worksite wellness specialists, etc. These organizations are listed above under other participants involved. We also leveraged our connections to work with an outside employee benefit analyst as well as a professional surveyor, and others. Getting the SC Chamber of Commerce to support our effort was evident that what we were doing was of value to them and their membership not to mention the others. Please see the report for further information. We involved a professional request for proposal and grant evaluator to help with building the scoring criteria and evaluation process as well as our B&I workgroup's expertise and experience. The leadership group was also brought into the peer reviewer review process. 4. List and briefly describe other sources of funding and/or in-kind support for the project. There was a tremendous level of in-kind time and energy to support all of these activities. Hours and hours from volunteers for this workgroup and its projects; some of who are paid up to $250 per hour for their work in the field of health and human performance management. For more information please see a listing of members on the workgroup from SCCOPE leadership. The Municipality Association of SC also gives rooms for meetings. All of the organizations participating in the survey sent emails out to their membership at no cost to the project. We intend to charge a small fee for the workshops to ensure they are self-sustaining and hopefully budget neutral. The goal is to cover the costs for putting on the workshops but still remains to be seen if we can accomplish this. 5. Please share any additional information relevant to the status of your project. We have arranged for hosting of the award application with linkage to the SCCOPE website for completing the application online ( a draft can be found on page 4). 6. How will the completion of this grant influence future projects? SCCOPE is achieving the goals as set for the original SCCOPE work plan to improve the health and well-being of South Carolinians. The survey proves we have some work to do however it supports that South Carolina business and industry are getting involved to improve the health of their employees and their families. The grant and results from B&I workgroup survey also supports the award process to help motivate employers to start and/or to get involved in providing wellness programs - particularly those focused on weight management. TO SEE OR DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE BUSINESS & INDUSTRY'S SURVEY, CLICK HERE Community Nutrition (1) Project Focus: This project will enable the Community Nutrition Workgroup to develop a toolkit for creating a farmers' market in South Carolina. Components will include types of markets, market goals, financing, site selection, vendor recruitment, rules and regulations, programming, state guidelines and more. Status on Completion of Activities: Due to the project lead taking an unexpected leave of absence from work for 8 weeks, the project is currently only partially completed. The design and concept of the toolkit have been established. Content materials have been compiled and draft content has been written. A survey for markets across the state has been developed, but not yet distributed. Status on Evaluation: The project will be evaluated by surveying toolkit recipients. In the long term, we will be able to measure the impact after the grant period by monitoring the number of new markets that open, the number of markets that are revitalized and participation and redemption rates of voucher and food stamp programs. 2. Please indicate any internal or external factors that might have negatively affected the project. As previously mentioned, project lead was unavailable for several weeks. In addition, it has been challenging to obtain information needed for the toolkit from the appropriate representatives of state organizations. 3. If you collaborated with other groups on the project, please list them and describe their participation. All contributing parties were members of the SCCOPE Community Nutrition Workgroup. 4. List and briefly describe other sources of funding and/or in-kind support for the project. In kind support was largely comprised of time of the Spartanburg Nutrition Council Director; and other Community Nutrition work group members. 5. Please share any additional information relevant to the status of your project. The work should be completed by September 1st. This timeframe would better serve toolkit recipients, as it would be distributed in the SC farmer's market off season. This would provide adequate time for someone to receive the toolkit and plan for a market between September and May or June, whereas a summer distribution may tempt recipients to open within this market season. 6. How will the completion of this grant influence future projects? The workgroup envisions this toolkit as the stepping stone and foundation for driving market policy discussion throughout the state, cultivating in some statewide guidelines and uniform market procedures. It should serve as a source of articles, information and resources that would have taken hours of research to track down previously. This project is the first step to help increase the local food economy, rejuvenate local small and medium farms and begin to strengthen local food systems throughout the state. This product will be disseminated in trainings and/or workshops to pertinent health and agriculture professionals. Health Care Systems 1. Project Focus: Assess providers' interests and knowledge deficits related to obesity treatment. The tool queries providers re: support the skills/ support they need to discuss and intervene concerning the many factors influence obesity, to include behavioral modification, pharmaceutical utilization, and community resources. Status on Completion of Activities: Survey design was completed, validated and administered to primary care providers practicing in South Carolina. Survey was administered to two discrete groups: TOTAL: 168 responses (n= 375); Response rate of 45% SC Primary Health Care Association: Returns of 108 (n=240): 45% Spartanburg Regional Hospital Affiliated Providers: Returns of 60 (n=135): 44% Currently, the results are being analyzed, formally. Additionally, we plan to sponsor a speaker for the South Carolina American College of Physicians Annual Meeting Fall 2007. The speaker will address provider educational needs/interests related to obesity treatment as identified from survey results. Status on Evaluation: Data has been collected, and analysis is currently being performed. 2. Please indicate any internal or external factors that might have negatively affected the project. We would have preferred higher provider participation rate. This is an external factor of which we had little control. We realize, however, that our return rate is commendable, given the population queried (busy physicians and nurse practitioners). 3. If you collaborated with other groups on the project, please list them and describe their participation. Survey was administered, in partnership with the SC Primary Health Care Association, to providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants) who practice in the Primary Care clinics in the state. Also, survey was presented to a group of providers affiliated with Spartanburg Regional Hospital. 4. List and briefly describe other sources of funding and/or in-kind support for the project. Sole support is from Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina Foundation. 5. Please share any additional information relevant to the status of your project. The survey design was informed by literature review and discussion with leading experts in the area of overweight/ obesity. The tool was validated by physicians and nurse practitioners in primary care clinics. 6. How will the completion of this grant influence future projects? The results of this survey will aid in planning future educational activities and/or resources for providers in South Carolina and elsewhere. Once these needs are identified, public health agencies, insurance companies, hospitals and other entities may be better able to assist providers in tackling this sensitive, yet very important issue. COMMUNITY FAITH (nothing at this time)