Pioneering Healthier Communities Coaches Meet

Six Pioneering Healthier Communities YMCAs (PHC) from Connecticut are participating this week with eleven like-focused YMCAs from Kentucky and Tennessee in the Pioneering Healthier Communities Coaches Conference of the 2009 cohort of the YMCA of the USA's Healthier Communities Initiative. The conference is being conducted in Arlington, Virginia, within sight of The Nation's Capitol, as the US Congress advances health care reform at the federal level.

Teams of Pioneering Healthier Communities coaches from the Darien Community YMCA, Greater Hartford YMCA, Southington-Cheshire Community YMCA, Wallingford Family YMCA, Greater Waterbury YMCA, and the Wilton Family YMCA are learning under the tutelage of leaders from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Community Initiatives, and the YMCA of the USA.

Funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is supporting a statewide PHC policy change initiative at the local and state level in six states and 32 communities over a period of five years. The aim of this initiative is to address the childhood obesity epidemic through policy and environmental changes that will have implications for communities, states and the nation. A total of 16 YMCAs within Connecticut, Kentucky and Tennessee were selected in 2009.

Pictured are: (L-R) - Audrey Haynes, Senior Vice President / Chief Government Affairs Officer, YMCA of the USA; with members of the Greater Hartford YMCA;s team - Brian Liss, Greater Hartford YMCA; Marco Palmeri, Plainville Health Department; Roger Moss, East Hartford Parks and Recreation; Chris Pallatto, Branch Executive, Wheeler Regional YMCA.