The State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America 2016 was released by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The annual report is regarded as one of the nation’s most comprehensive documents on the current state of the U.S. obesity epidemic.
The American Council on Exercise (ACE) said in regards to this year’s report, “One especially encouraging and essential aspect of the report is the importance of community collaboration in addressing key health issues.
The report states that “Many of the most successful approaches for preventing obesity focus on matching the specific needs and leveraging the existing resources within a local community. These place-based approaches ensure that people who live in the community are invested in making a difference in their own cities and towns.”
The report goes on to describe the details of how community collaboration, or “place-based approaches,” can lend to “local partnership networks that involve leaders from the public health, healthcare, education, philanthropic, social service, transportation and housing sectors.”
According to the report, those key community stakeholders are best suited to identifying local resources and determining the most effective strategies in achieving their shared goal.
“ACE is encouraged by these findings,” said CEO Scott Goudeseune. “There is a real opportunity, right now, to dramatically impact the obesity rate in this country, but it will require exactly the kinds of collaboration and community focus that this report spells out.”
ACE recently provided curriculum support and study assistance that helped build the capacity of the Active RVA movement with Sports Backers, a Virginia-based nonprofit dedicated to making physical activity a priority in people’s lives. The support provided by ACE has allowed the organization to increase the number of fitness professionals in the Richmond, VA.
