The BHC school leadership team is important because we are able to promote a whole-school healthy transformation by having leaders working with students throughout the school day. Though time commitments vary, leaders should plan to be incorporating Building Healthy Communities weekly into their work with students, staff and families:

• Healthy Champion: Responsible for receiving and distributing equipment and resources, onboarding component leaders and providing regular follow-up and support as needed, communicating monthly with the School Coordinator through an online survey and short phone call. Expect 1 -2 hours of commitment per week.
• Administrator: Responsible for facilitating morning healthy living announcements and weekly parent communication. Expect 15-30 minutes of commitment per week.
  Classroom Teachers: Responsible for facilitating 8 BHC nutrition lessons (at least 1 per month) and implementing short classroom physical activity breaks daily, in addition to encouraging healthy classroom policies and regular parent communication. Expect 30 minutes of commitment per week.
• Physical Education Teachers: Responsible to teach quality physical education to all classes daily, utilize online continuing education modules, and commit to incorporating the EPEC curriculum as school district curriculum requirements allow. Expect 10 minutes of commitment per week for training or preparing lessons in addition to normal school responsibilities.
• Active Recess Adviser(s): Responsible to ensure that recess cart is taken outside to be used by students daily, that the equipment is regularly inventoried, and that students are encouraged to be physically active during recess daily. Expect 5-10 minutes of commitment per week in addition to normal school responsibilities.
• Healthy Kids Club Adviser: Responsible to conduct at least one Healthy Kids Club session each week between October and May, 30 total sessions for the year. Expect 1.5-2 hours of commitment per week.

No. Our goal is to include a variety of school districts with differing levels of experience with wellness programs.

The Building Healthy Communities program utilizes a targeted approach to recruiting and selecting schools for the program, one that focuses on health, education, and economic disparities endemic to many under-resourced communities and schools that negatively impact their students’ social determinants of health. We consider working with a diverse group of schools (e.g., geographically, school type, size, etc.) an important part of the BHC program so we work to ensure that we are implementing the program in communities and schools with the highest disparities and social inequities. We use a variety of data sources to identify and recruit schools to participate in the program that are in the highest need categories, including:

•  state health data
• state and community educational achievement data
• regional economic indicators
• individual school metrics (free/reduced lunch; Title I status, etc.)

During the recruitment and selection process, Building Healthy Communities leadership will be in communication with school districts’ central administration (i.e. Superintendents, Elementary Curriculum Directors, etc.). Confirmation of program participation will primarily occur at the district level.

If you’re interested in your district being considered for future BHC programming, please contact us.

When your school receives the Building Healthy Communities program you are fully funded and resourced for the first year, but equipped for many years to come. This means that you will receive all of your equipment (that comes with a lifetime guarantee), curriculum, training, and stipends during the first year. However, once you are part of the BHC program, you have continued access to the website and all the program resources housed therein. Before the school year ends, your BHC School Coordinator will work with you to create a sustainability plan to ensure all the good work you’ve done this year continues to impact your school environment into the future.