Communities Creating Healthy Environments

(CCHE) is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that sets out to prevent childhood obesity by increasing access to healthy foods and safe places to play in communities of color. The program will advance RWJF’s efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015 by supporting diverse, community-based organizations and federally chartered tribal nations in the development and implementation of effective, culturally competent policy initiatives to address the root causes of childhood obesity locally.

Vision

Playgrounds littered with broken glass. Neighborhood stores with few healthy eating options. We won’t solve childhood obesity without addressing root causes-- the land use policies, predatory marketing and underfunded public infrastructure that make it difficult for kids and families to make healthy choices in the first place. CCHE seeks to get to the heart of the issue by supporting community organizing and policy change to create healthy environments where kids live, learn and play.

Our vision is to forge a broad based movement led by the communities most affected that will address the root causes of childhood obesity in bold, creative – and effective ways.

This is why CCHE:

• makes investments in the communities that most need it;
• builds sustainable grassroots infrastructure that will continue to work for health equity beyond this initiative;
  focuses on the structural change needed to create healthier communities rather than getting stuck on individual blame and cultural scapegoating;
• takes into account the culture, language, geography and historical contexts of the communities where we work; and
• makes community organizing central so that residents are involved in the political processes that affect their lives.