Since 2018, Nemours Children’s Health has been funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help states create healthier early care and education (ECE) programs and state systems through the Healthy Kids, Healthy Future Technical Assistance Program (HKHF TAP). Throughout the five years and guided by the CDC’s Spectrum of Opportunities, Nemours Children’s engaged with 37 states and the District of Columbia through various programs to build capacity to improve nutrition and physical activity in ECE. Of those, Nemours Children’s partnered closely with 13 states to integrate healthy eating and physical activity best practices, such as opportunities for daily physical activity both indoors and outdoors into ECE program settings and broader state systems. State ECE systems include TA networks, professional development, licensing, Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS), and more.
We celebrate the incredible work achieved by our partners over the past five years and are grateful for their engagement in this important work!
To learn more, you can view the Healthy Kids, Healthy Future Technical Assistance Program here.
Also, you can read success stories highlighting the changes made in ECE programs in HKHF TAP states.
Elevating Community Voices: Throughout HKHF TAP, our state partners have taken an equitable approach to their projects by ensuring those that are most impacted by the facility and state-system level efforts are included in decision making. We commemorate five years of engaging with ECE programs and trainers across the nation by launching our Community Voice webpage to highlight the voices of individuals positively impacted by this project.
Delaware – Nemours Children’s partnered with the Rodel Foundation of Delaware from February 2022-July 2023. Through HKHF TAP, Rodel partnered with many organizations, families, and ECE programs, including Rhondalin Cannon-Tingle. Rhondalin is a tireless advocate for family child care providers and children’s health. She not only runs her own family child care site but is also deeply involved in the community. Rhondalin has organized and hosted two community health fairs (in October 2022 and April 2023) for health and wellness partners across the state. Both events were so successful that she plans to host a third community health fair in the upcoming year. Read more about Rhondalin and her commitment to healthy child care in Delaware here.
Iowa– Nemours Children’s partnered with the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services from 2019-2023. In this video, Gina Wells, a Child Care Consultant Supervisor for the Child Care Resource and Referral of Central Iowa, shares her experience with the project and how HKHF TAP impacted child care programs in Iowa.
Maine– Nemours Children’s partnered with MCD Global Health from 2018 to 2023 to create healthier ECE programs and state systems. In this video, Sasha Shunk, a family child care provider , shares how she was involved in Healthy Kids, Healthy Future Maine. Sasha is a trainer for Nemours’ Physical Activity Learning Session project and is a member of the Maine Physical Activity and Nutrition in ECE coalition.
South Carolina– Nemours Children’s partnered with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control from 2019 to 2023 to improve outdoor learning environments and increase access to physical activity in ECE programs. Through this partnership, Grow Outdoors South Carolina (GO SC) worked to create ECE demonstration sites. Janice Ironside, the owner and director of MEGA Child Development Center, shares her experience with GO SC as a demonstration site and how her program’s natural outdoor learning environment impacted her, the children, staff, and families.
Wisconsin– Nemours Children’s partnered with Kids Forward and healthTIDE in Wisconsin from 2019 to 2023. Bridgett Wilder shares her experience as a leader in Healthy Early, Wisconsin’s Early Childhood coalition, and a community advocate for early childhood health and wellness. For more information on Healthy Early, visit healthyearly.org.
For more information about the Healthy Kids, Healthy Future Technical Assistance Program, visit healthykidshealthyfuture.org or email hkhftap@Nemours.org.
