Municipal Leadership for Healthy Southern Cities Project
With support from Leadership for Healthy Communities, a national Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program that assists state and local leaders in their efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic, the YEF Institute has launched a two-year effort to help city leaders in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi adopt and implement policy changes that promote healthy eating and active living.
The Municipal Leadership for Healthy Southern Cities project focuses on two specific policy areas: increasing access to recreation opportunities and expanding access to healthy foods. The initiative consists of two concurrent efforts. The YEF Institute provides intensive assistance to five mid-sized and larger cities in each of the three target states: Little Rock and North Little Rock, Ark., Baton Rouge, La., and Jackson and Tupelo, Miss.
The Institute is also partnering with the Foundation for the Mid South (FMS), a regional community foundation, to assist 36 smaller and more rural communities in these states through a "train the trainer" approach. With assistance from FMS, the Institute is working with state municipal leagues and state health departments to assist these communities as they take steps to combat childhood obesity. On an ongoing basis, the YEF Institute and FMS are consulting with the Arkansas Municipal League, the Louisiana Municipal Association and the Mississippi Municipal League to help guide the project.
Efforts in the smaller communities are specifically focused on increasing residents' access to recreational opportunities and fresh, nutritious foods. These cities and towns are each forming a community action plan to improve policies that can reduce childhood obesity. The 41 project cities include:
Mississippi
- Alligator
- Arcola
- Coldwater
- Hernando
- Jackson
- Lexington
- Mound Bayou
- Okolona
- Starkville
- Tupelo
- Wesson
- Arkansas
Arkansas City
- Batesville
- Blytheville
- Brinkley
- Cherokee Village
- Clarendon
- Clinton
- Conway
- Dumas
- Fordyce
- Greenbrier
- Harrison
- Helena/West Helena
- Little Rock
- Magnolia
- McGehee
- Nashville
- North Little Rock
- Siloam Springs
- Springdale
- Waldron
Louisiana
- Arcadia
- Bastrop
- Baton Rouge
- Covington
- Lecompte
- Natchitoches
- New Iberia
- Patterson
- West Lake
In all aspects of the initiative, the YEF Institute is helping city leaders understand the circumstances and needs of populations at highest risk for childhood obesity and related health problems, and the assistance is designed to stimulate and support policy changes that improve obesity-related health outcomes for these populations.
Co-chairing the initiative are three prominent mayors who have demonstrated a deep commitment to the goal of reducing childhood obesity: Mayor Chip Johnson of Hernando, Miss.; Mayor Melvin L. "Kip" Holden of Baton Rouge, La.; and Mayor Otis S. Johnson of Savannah, Ga.
