New Website: How to Grow a Healthy Change for Latino Kids in Your Area and Beyond

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Want to fight Latino childhood obesity, but don’t know where to start or how to make a change?

Start at Salud America! Growing Healthy Change.

The new website is a first-of-its-kind clearinghouse of Latino-focused resources and stories to promote changes—healthier marketing and improved access to healthy food and physical activity, etc.—for Latino kids in your neighborhood and across the nation.

Right now at the site, you can:

• Input your address and create maps at the school, city, county, state, or national level to see what changes are growing for Latino kids, or search by topic (e.g., healthier school snacks, active spaces, sugary drinks);
• Find resources to start a change;
• Watch and read about real-life “Salud Heroes” of change; and
• Become a “Salud Hero” by uploading your own stories.

Here are some examples of Salud Heroes who have made healthy community changes:

• San Antonio school district cooks up healthier concession stand menus.
• San Antonio Latina sisters start a neighborhood fitness program.
• Houston mom helps send Latino students home with fresh produce.
• Virginia parents help remove sugary drinks from schools.

The site was created by Salud America!, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based at the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, the team behind SaludToday. The site is part of the Community Commons platform.

“We believe this site is a critical tool to showcase the latest healthy changes for Latino kids that are popping up across the country, and also to educate and motivate people to start creating changes of their own,” said Amelie G. Ramirez, DrPH, director of Salud America! and the IHPR. “What’s great is that you can find what changes are happening in your own backyard, or see what’s happening 1,000 miles away and how you might be able to make that happen in your area.”

Visit and register at the new website here.

Join our Tweetchat at 1 p.m. CST Feb. 18, 2014, to learn how the new site can help you. Follow @SaludToday on Twitter and use hashtag #GrowingHealthyChange.