RWJF Launches $44 Million Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities Program

As the first investment of a new $44 million initiative, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded grants of up to $400,000 to nine communities across the country that will serve as leading sites for its most ambitious effort yet to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities will support local action to increase opportunities for physical activity and access to healthy, affordable foods for children and families. The goal is to catalyze policy and environmental changes that can make a lasting difference and be replicated nationally.

The leading sites are Chicago; Columbia, Mo.; Louisville, Ky.; Seattle; Somerville, Mass.; Washington; and Baldwin Park, Central Valley and Oakland in California. All will serve as mentors when the initiative expands next year to approximately 60 more communities.

RWJF already has released a call for proposals for that second round of funding, which will award grants of up to $360,000. Partnerships from across the United States and its territories are eligible to apply, but preference will be given to applicants from 15 states with particularly high prevalence of or risk for childhood obesity: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. The deadline for brief proposals is February 3.
Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities is a major part of RWJF's five-year, $500 million commitment to reverse the epidemic in the United States by 2015.

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