Happy New Year, Everyone!

Healthy San Joaquin Collaborative members met on January 9, 2015, focusing on the continuing discussion about the next physical activity community kickoff event.  Two updates were included on the agenda:

CNAP:  A new CNAP Facilitator will be announced soon, as recruitment for the position has recently ended.

REACH: REACH has moved into a new office. REACH has also been working on a Work Plan that is focusing on 3 zip codes within Stockton.  New Contact Info:  REACH San Joaquin, California Center for Public Health Advocacy, 401 N. San Joaquin Street, Stockton, CA 95202  Phone: 209.466.7000 (Office)

2014-2015 Community Physical Activity Planning Update

“Exercise Across San Joaquin County” started as the campaign idea for this event but after some discussion, members agreed that they would prefer to continue the HSJ Collaborative's outreach work with another Physical Activity (PA) Community Kickoff event for the Lodi area.

The last PA Community Kickoff event, which was at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds in Stockton, was a major success. The event reached over 600 community members as they stopped by to pick up the nutrition and physical activity resources, participate in games and PA demos, and learn about ReThink Your Drink.

After reviewing why it was a success, it was decided that the PA Kickoff should be attached to another event. In the case of Stockton, it was paired up with the Stockton Flea Market that occurs every Wednesday and Thursday, which has heavy foot traffic.  The event was strategically located near the entrance, featured three booths with ample room for Physical Activity demos next to it. One booth showcased the popular ReThink Your Drink campaign, another booth housed the Nutrition and Physical Activity spin wheel game and prizes, and the 3^rd booth contained useful health resources. Physical Activity demos occurred every 15 minutes and were led by Excel and Venture Academy students, Silver Sneakers, Zumba instructors, and other volunteers.

Physical Activity Community Kickoff – Lodi Area

During the January HSJ Collaborative meeting, members pooled their ideas together for the upcoming event. Since everyone agreed that the Kickoff should be paired up with another event, the following are potential locations within Lodi that will be research for feasibility.  Each HSJ subcommittee agreed to look into the site and bring back the details to the February meeting so members could make a decision.

Lodi Flea Market (Advocacy & Action – Jovanna & Ingrid)

• Occurs every Wednesday & Thursday from 5:00 am – 3:00 pm
• Located at the Lodi Grape Festival Fairgrounds

Lodi Boy & Girls Club (Learning & Sharing – Maricarmen)

• Located in Blakely Park

Lodi Street Fair (Resources & Recognition – Anna & Lorena)

• One day event on Sunday, May 3^rd
• Will be located on 14 blocks on School Street

Date

The Physical Activity Kickoff will most likely be in the month of May as it is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Other events within the month of May include National Bike Month, Bike to School Day (May 6, 2015), Drinking Water Month, and National Stroke Awareness Month.

Key Message

“Activate Your Summer”

The Kickoff has coined a new theme which will feature summer activity ideas and nutrition related information.

Marketing

To help market the event, members have suggested creating a QR code which leads to a page within the HSJ website. The webpage will feature “Activate Your Summer” which will house resources, useful links, tips, contacts, etc. Also, starting a social media contest with the hashtag #ActivateYourSummer.  Details about this tentative contest will be updated in future posts.  

Remember, Healthy San Joaquin has a Facebook and Twitter. Please, follow and share!

Toolkit

Members have also expressed the need for a Healthy San Joaquin Collaborative Toolkit.  Jovanna from First 5 used their Health-focus toolkit model as an example of what it contains, who it is given to, and how it can be used. Healthy San Joaquin generated a PA Kickoff flyer for the Stockton event, but with a compiled inventory of resources that can be given to partners, this will create sustainability and  fast, easy access to information in the future.

Toolkit Training

A suggestion was to use the kickoff to promote a PA training for CBO's staff and parent groups.  Anna and Lorena will look into asking the Health Education Council Gold Country Region if they still do PA trainings so we could do one event and invite all interested to attend. 

End of Summer Celebration

Another suggestion would be to invite those who attended the kickoff and training to an “end of summer celebration” in order to do a qualitative evaluation of how the toolkit and PA activities were utilized by CBO's and community members.

Announcements

HealthNet

• HealthNet will be launching free cardiovascular classes
  • o You do not have to be a HealthNet member
  • Can be held at various locations by request
• Just Published “New Healthy Hearts, Healthy Lives Prevention Toolkits”

Public Health Services

• Free Nutrition Classes
  • Will be held at Stribley Community Center in Stockton
  • See attached flyer for details

Future Meeting and Events

• Healthy San Joaquin Leadership Council Meeting

Thursday, January 15, 2015 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.

Location:      REACH San Joaquin Project

401 N. San Joaquin Street

Stockton, CA 95202

• Obesity and Chronic Disease Prevention Taskforce Meeting 

Thursday, January 15, 2015 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Location: AgCenter Calaveras Room

• AgVenture San Joaquin County

January 21, 2015 - Stockton

March 3, 2015 – Lodi

For more information or to volunteer contact Joyce Bishop at jbishop@ucdavis.edu

Next meeting will be on February 6, 2015 from 12:00-1:30 pm in the Delta Room at the AgCenter.

See you there!

Healthy San Joaquin Collaborative members met on November 7, 2014 which started off with updates about the County Nutrition Action Plan (CNAP) and from REACH, but the majority of the meeting focused on sharpening our plans for the 2014-2015 fiscal year. October's meeting introduced an idea called, “Exercise Across San Joaquin” (a tentative title) that engaged many of our members during our November meeting to suggest what direction Healthy San Joaquin should go.

The following are notes from the November 7, 2014 meeting.

Reports & Updates

CNAP Updates

The CNAP position has been funded for another year and they are currently in the process of hiring the next CNAP Facilitator. This will be an 8-9 month contract ending September 30, 2015.

There will also be an upcoming website that will provide resources, contact information and updates on the San Joaquin County Nutrition Action Plan.

During the Obesity and Chronic Disease Taskforce meeting on November 20, 2014 a discussion was conducted to hone in on a focus where members were asked to suggest what they would like to see in the next year.

The following lists those suggestions.

Promotion

• CNAP Facebook page
• Post small bursts of Nutritional/Exercise facts

Physical Activity/ Parks/Bicylces

• Expand upon PA Kickoffs and outreach in smaller SJ County towns/cities
• Safe/fun recreation for youth where they live
• Inventory of organized sports, community leads, different physical activity groups/programs in the area
• Increase number of walks/runs, 5K
• Shared use of school playgrounds for PA

•  “Parklets”, pocket parks, home zones, etc. Play areas that are not traditional
• Playdates for children at the park and Tai Chi for moms
• Workout stations at parks
• Fitness equipment in parks for adults
• Water fountains available in parks

• Establish a bike program with law enforcement
• More bike/walking trails
• Bike racks
• Bicycle parking on school that are safe and protected
• Secure places to store bikes
• Explore bike sharing
• Create bike lanes that take you to neighborhood centers
• “Regional Bike to Work Week”
• Fix broken/stolen (and retrieved) bikes for homeless

Events/Education

• “Walking meetings”
• “Lean & Green Mondays”
• Nutrition Week prior to Bike to Work Week
• “California Fresh Thursdays”
• “Screen-free Week”

• What is “healthy”?
• Teach school kids how to prepare healthy snacks after school when parents are not home
• Partner with food bank to conduct consumer education
• Kids grow and sell from their gardens
• Partner with residents who may be interested in creating community gardens on their properties

Safety

• Park under trees regularly
• Safety guards around schools

Other ideas

• Rethink food distribution especially during holidays
• Address issues about youth not being able to bring in water bottles
• Healthy snacks & beverages in vending machines
• Urban 4-H programs on vacant lots
• Start working on a sugary beverage tax
• Work on an ordinance to mandate access to fruit and vegetables in the “town center” (as described in the Stockton General Plan
• Promatores Programs
• Get more males involved in outreach and modeling of healthy eating, teaching of athletic practices

REACH Updates

REACH is looking to expand their efforts by working with community-based & faith-based organizations in order to continue their work in decreasing sugar-sweetened beverages and increasing breastfeeding rates.

REACH has been actively participating with Stockton's General Plan and regularly speaking to lead planners to work on amending policies.

2014-2015 Fiscal Year Planning

During October's meeting HSJ Collaborative members generated a potential project, unofficially named “Exercise Across San Joaquin County” that will be modeled after “Exercise Across California”. This project can be turned into a multi-city campaign which can produce many participants but in order to do this, members have expressed the need to expand messages to include more activities, such as gardening and hockey that are also considered fun forms of Physical Activities. This also includes Healings in Motion's Stretch and Stroll model.

Potential site: Lodi, CA

Other activities that were suggested were themed runs such as a zombie or vegetable runs that will encourage dress-up events.

More great questions were asked by members such as, “How will this be tracked?” or “Will there be incentives?” or “Should there be a logo?”. As this is as work in progress, these questions should be kept in mind and should be answered as we zero in on the official project within these coming months.

The three HSJ workgroups (Resources & Recognition, Learning & Sharing, and Advocacy & Action) broke out into groups to discuss what each group will be doing in order to fulfill “Exercise Across San Joaquin”.

Breakouts

Resources & Recognition

• Develop maps and tool kits
• Incentives?
  • Gym memberships
  • Gift cards?
  • How to get store involved
• Boys & Girls Club
• Smoothie Bike

Learning & Sharing

• Contact Lodi Parks & Rec
  • Do they have free services?
  • Zumba
  • Karate
  • Kickboxing
• Look for clubs in communities that are willing to do PA demonstrations
• Spin wheel
  • PA on spin wheel. If done then the participant will receive an incentive
• Look into making hula hoops out of PVC pipes

Advocacy & Action

• Marketing & Media
  • “Active San Joaquin” or “Move Your Way Across San Joaquin”
  • Training Walking Club leaders
  • Sustainability?
  • Mapping San Joaquin County to see how many miles and steps it will be
  • Other ways to get Physical Activity?
    • Gardening
    • Skateboarding

Next meeting will be on January 9, 2015 from 12:00-1:30 pm in the Delta Room at the AgCenter.

See you there next year!

Hello, Everyone!

Welcome to Healthy San Joaquin Collaborative's new Blog! This is where we will be posting our updates big or small to keep everyone informed about what HSJ and it's collaborators are doing.

Healthy San Joaquin Collaborative members met today (October 3, 2014) at the AgCenter and the majority of the meeting was utilized to focus on planning and expectations for 2015. After some discussion about what HSJ should center their focus on, voting commenced and the majority have agreed to continue with Physical Activity for this coming year.

The last two years we have had two major events that surrounded Physical Activity, such as the Community Physical Activity Kickoff in Manteca and in Stockton. Collectively, we were able to reach over 800 community members at both events! Members have expressed that we should continue our momentum with Physical Activity and try to hone in on communities that we haven't been able to reach. 

The following are notes from today's meeting: 

Project Ideas for 2015

• Increasing Stretch & Stroll's in designated communities (an activity currently being implemented by the Healings in Motion) and include healthy eating tips
• Going into rural areas
• Another Community Physical Activity Kickoff event in a rural community
• Walking Clubs
• Incorporating competitions
• Training for volunteers or other providers
• Marketing Campaign
• Walking Clubs
• Community Physical Activity Kickoffs
• Bike to School Month
• School leadership councils
• Physical Activity Champions for different areas
• Creating Physical Activity Resources
• Health tips, marketed as Healthy San Joaquin Collaborative
• Create tips that can be used at schools, such as morning announcements

After some brainstorming, group members have shown a great interest in Walking Clubs. So:

• Exercise Across San Joaquin County (unofficial name) is what HSJ will be exploring during next month's meeting and everyone's input will be much appreciated
• Exercise Across San Joaquin Countywill go into a rural community (location still to be decided) with a Community Physical Activity Kickoff event
• Main event: introducing Stretch & Stroll (Walking Clubs) using Healings in Motion's model. 
• HSJ Workgroups (Resource and Recognition, Advocacy and Action, Learning and Sharing) have been delegated tasks and we will start planning during the November 2014 meeting. 

Here are some possible rural communities that we will be choosing from:

• Ripon
• Lockeford
• Thornton
• Linden
• Escalon
• Tracy
• Lodi
• Mountain House
• French Camp 

Next meeting will be on November 7th, 2014 from 12:00-1:30 pm in the Delta Room at the AgCenter.

Hope to see you there!