Washington, D.C., March 13, 2006 – The American Public Health Association (APHA) today announced that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has provided a $100,000 grant to help fund the 11 th annual National Public Health Week, April 3-9, 2006. This year’s theme is “Designing Healthy Communities: Raising Healthy Kids” and APHA and hundreds of partner organizations will explore ways that Americans can build healthier communities.
The Kellogg Foundation, based in Battle Creek, Mich., approved the grant to support the weeklong observance during which communities across the country will consider how buildings, roads, sidewalks and neighborhood design are affecting the health of children. For example, children who live close enough to school to walk often do not because they have no sidewalks to walk on. Air pollution has contributed to higher rates of childhood asthma, and the lack of access to fresh foods and avenues for activity in some neighborhoods has contributed to rising rates of childhood obesity.
“This year’s National Public Health Week will highlight the many public health challenges, such as access to fresh and healthy food, improved air and water quality and opportunities for physical activity, that affect our children in their physical, social and built environment,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “We thank the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and our other partners for supporting this important project.”
APHA has also received a $50,000 grant from the California Endowment, a private health foundation that provides grants to community-based organizations throughout California and a $25,000 grant from The American Legacy Foundation. Additional supporters of National Public Health Week include The California Wellness Foundation and the National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc.. The California Endowment, National Association of Community Health Centers and The American Legacy Foundation are co-sponsors of National Public Health Week 2006.
During National Public Health Week, APHA will aim to improve the understanding of the relationship between built environments—homes, schools, parks and community design—and the health and safety of children by promoting solutions that families, communities and policy-makers can use. During NPHW, each day will focus on the relationship between the built environment and a core children’s health issue, with additional focus on effective solutions based on case studies from model communities. More information about the event is available at www.nphw.org.
Founded in 1872, the APHA is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. The association aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community-based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States. APHA represents a broad array of health providers, educators, environmentalists, policy-makers and health officials at all levels working both within and outside governmental organizations and educational institutions. More information is available at www.apha.org.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 “to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.” Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community and society well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions and healthy communities.
To achieve the greatest impact, the foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.