Policy Is Powerful

Today the six Connecticut YMCA teams selected as Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant recipients gathered with their Pioneering Healthier Communities collaborators for a statewide Next Steps meeting.

The Southington-Cheshire Community YMCA, one of the six grantees, hosted the Darien Community YMCA, the Greater Hartford YMCA, the Wallingford Family YMCA, the Greater Waterbury YMCA and the Wilton Family YMCA.

Roberta R. Friedman, ScM, Director of Public Policy for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, keynoted the conference, with an illustrated presentation titled “Policy Is Powerful” in which she emphasized the shift from “programs” to developing and implementing “policy” related to youth obesity.

Pictured are: [L-R} Roberta R. Friedman, Sam Bechnel, Morag Vance, Mario Garcia, Judy Jameson, Phil Dwyer, Barbara Moore, and Jay Cohen