Nurturing Healthier Schools in New York

Vanguard supports Creating Healthy Schools and Communities (CHSC), which is a five-year initiative with the New York State Department of Health focused on increasing opportunities for physical activity and access to healthier, nutrient-dense food for people of all ages using an equitable, community-driven approach. CHSC supports policies and practices in worksites and community settings, early care and education settings, and schools. In partnership with JSI’s Physical Activity and Nutrition Center of Excellence (PANCE), Vanguard conducts training and technical assistance (TA) to statewide grantees throughout New York, covering foundational communications topics such as social marketing, media outreach, materials development, social media and persuasive storytelling. As part of our TA, we got to roll up our sleeves and work one-on-one with individual grantees to learn about their specific areas of need and talk through strategies and ideas that would help them be more effective. For each of our trainings, we tapped experts within Vanguard who could apply their years of experience directly to support the grantees’ communications goals and provided teaching aids such as tip sheets to help the strategies discussed take root. To bring the impact of the program to life, we created a grantee success story video demonstrating the accomplishments in school and community settings during the first two years of the initiative. Our support included gathering photos and videos from the grantees, writing a video script, and producing the video.