|
Commissioner Janes Participates in Child Obsesity Preventions Summit
Oct 23, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Janes participates in national child obesity prevention summit Janes, who chairs NACo's Health Steering Committee, participated in the policymaker focus group and offered remarks to the full forum during the Oct. 19 luncheon. Officials discussed innovative partnerships, promising practices and policy-relevant research that can support their efforts to create healthier communities. Leaders shared the policy approaches they have taken to prevent childhood obesity, improve access to affordable healthy foods, increase opportunities for safe physical activity and improve the social environments that shape how children perceive and relate to healthy eating and active living. NACo President Eric Coleman, commissioner, Oakland County, Mich., said local governments can play an important role in fighting childhood obesity. "Not only does obesity threaten our health, but it leads to tremendous financial costs to governments and the private sector," Coleman said. "Counties should be doing more and we are doing more and initiatives such as this are evidence of those efforts." The forum was hosted by Leadership for Healthy Communities, a $10-million national program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that advances policies to support healthy eating and active living. NACo, along with eight other local government associations, is a Leadership for Healthy Communities grantee.
|