We Can!™ Progams Blooming Across the Peach State

April 10, 2009

With 49 sites registered for We Can!, Georgia ranks in the top ten We Can! states when it comes to number of registered sites. As you’ll see from the following stories, it’s also been a frontrunner for new developments in the first three months of this year.

• Cooking with Lizzie—and We Can!

Enthusiasm for We Can! is running high in Woodstock, GA, with the launch of a new We Can! series run by C.H.O.I.C.E.S. (Center for Helping Obesity in Children End Successfully). The series, which is free and runs for six weeks, is based on the We Can! Parent Program.

“The series is targeting the parents of 6- to 14-year-olds,” said C.H.O.I.C.E.S. Founder & Executive Director Vanetta S. Keyes. “Things have changed since we were kids—we could all use a hand helping our kids eat better and move more.”

The series is being led by the “Cooking with Lizzie” nutrition education team—a group that offers recipes and tips to create healthy, simple, and delicious meals—and is geared to giving parents other practical tools that work, including:

• Cooking demonstrations for quick snacks and meals that kids will love to eat
• Fun incentives and materials to keep everyone making healthy choices
• Ongoing activities for families that complete the challenge to change their habits

A long-time General Community Site, C.H.O.I.C.E.S. has been spreading the We Can! word since December 2006. The site will be holding their 4th Annual Children’s Nutrition Education and Physical Activity Expo at the Cherokee Recreation Center on June 6, 2009. The annual event will included a 5K “Walk for Wellness” led by Woodstock Mayor Donnie Henriques.

• Cobb County Spreads the We Can! Word

A We Can! community site in Cobb County, Georgia, has been working hard to get We Can! messages into local schools. Recently, Amy Hoffman, the We Can! site lead and a public health educator on health promotion specifically for Cobb County, taught a Media-Smart Youth® class at Tapp Middle School in Powder Springs.

Cobb & Douglas Public Health—representing public health for both Cobb & Douglas counties—has been running We Can! programming since April 2007, when it registered to become an Intensive Community Site.

Because of Hoffman's involvement with We Can!, she was invited to participate in a roundtable in Atlanta with the Acting U.S. Surgeon General, the Georgia Department of Health Commissioner, a representative from the Morehouse School of Medicine, and others to discuss ways to keep children from becoming overweight.

“I was excited to meet with the Surgeon General and other people on a national level who care about childhood obesity,” said Hoffman. “I also learned about the various things that are going on around the state related to childhood obesity prevention, and even met some people from the City of Roswell’s We Can! program.”