Taking ‘Community Quarterbacking’ to the Nation

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quarterbacksLike a football quarterback who calls plays to get a team working together to win a game, the community quarterback unites local groups to work for the good of the community.

Salud America!, a Latino childhood obesity prevention network funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, is excited to take the “community quarterback” concept—championed by the Investing in What Works for America’s Communities project—to a national level for holistic Latino health.

How?

Salud America! understands the value of community quarterbacks, and is working to develop a cadre of such quarterbacks across the nation.

We call them Salud Heroes. A Salud Hero is a person, organization, company, or coalition that has made an effort to develop a healthy change in a Latino community in one of six areas: sugary drinks, healthier marketing, active play, active spaces, better food in neighborhoods and healthier school snacks.

Take, for example, Shape Up San Francisco (Shape Up SF).

Shape Up SF, a community quarterback/Salud Hero model, is a public-private health partnership led by the city’s health department and involving more than 50 community groups and city and school partners. The coalition aims to address the epidemic of chronic disease through primary prevention and environmental strategies, with an emphasis on physical activity and nutrition, among Latino and other minority populations.

Salud America! is putting a national spotlight on the work of Shape Up SF by developing Salud Heroes stories about the coalition’s work.

Our first Salud Hero story shows how Shape Up SF worked with school and other officials to boost the quality and quantity of physical education (P.E.) for local students. Responding to research that many schools don’t get enough P.E. time, partners worked together to train 38 teachers in the district to become P.E. specialists and expand P.E. opportunities.

Our second Salud Hero story shows how Shape Up SF, local Latino and black youth, and other local health leaders stepped up against the sugary drink industry with a counter-marketing campaign called the Open Truth. In 2013, beverage companies spent $866 million to advertise sugary drinks in ways associated with feelings of fun and happiness, many targeting youth of color.

Salud America! shares these Salud Hero stories nationally on our Growing Healthy Change website and on our SaludToday social media campaign.

In this way, we’re becoming a clearinghouse of Salud Heroes/community quarterbacks who have each partnered in some way to drive change in their community. Visitors to our site, in turn, see these stories and become inspired to make their own partnerships and changes, essentially building a pipeline of future community quarterbacks.

With holistic approaches like these we can help win the game against childhood obesity and improve Latino health.

By The Numbers By The Numbers

20.7

percent

of Latino kids have obesity (compared to 11.7% of white kids)

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