Social Marketing campaign to support behavior change through awareness of healthy behaviors and consequences of unhealthy weight.
This strategy is conceptualized as a series of campaigns that will be targeted to specific population segments and to the community-at-large.  The first component focuses on a comprehensive message about the importance of awareness regarding personal health risks via promotion of an online health risk assessment and promoting the knowledge of relevant biometrics and preventive health screenings/activities. “Body mass index” (BMI) correlates with amount of body fat.  BMI will be promoted as one of the ways for the community to understand its risk for the consequences associated with overweight and obesity.  The additional campaigns will focus on promoting the solutions for overweight and obesity – increased consumption of fruit and vegetables and increased levels of physical activity.  The social marketing purpose, in addition to supporting awareness leading to behavior change, is to create a new social norm that fosters a culture of health and wellness in the community.

Provide leadership and coordination of the Healthy Silicon Valley community collaborative on obesity prevention. In September 2002, representatives of The California Endowment, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Community Foundation Silicon Valley and The Valley Foundation responded to The Health Trust’s interest in exploring how they, as foundations, might facilitate the development of a healthier Santa Clara County.  There was a building consensus that the major health problems of our nation need to be addressed through upstream, widely-based collaborative and community approaches, which emphasized primary prevention strategies.  Early in 2006, the Healthy Silicon Valley Collaborative formalized its structure and over 100 organizations and individuals have participated in the collaborative, which has become the basis for partnerships and synergies that have driven and will continue to drive important environmental change strategies.

Impact General Plan processes to require inclusion of a health element. Land use and public health officials had little or no interface during much of the past century.  However, land use and public health had common objectives in planning and developing communities, largely to separate populations and communities from threats to public safety and health.  General Plans developed by counties and municipalities lay out the development of a community through policy statements.  Land use and any development may not occur unless consistent with adopted general plans.  The State requires seven elements of a general plan.  Additional elements may be included by policy to address increased opportunities for healthy nutrition and physical activity and to encourage creation of environments or infrastructure that promote access to healthy foods and facilitate physical activity.

Promote and foster development of community/school gardens and urban/sustainable agriculture.  Many experts have identified the problem of obesity with the distancing of communities from farms.  Children know more about fast and processed food than they know about where and how food is produced.  All people need to have access to fruit and vegetables as part of healthy nutrition and knowledge and awareness of the benefits of plant based nutrition can be reinforced with access not only to the produce, but also to the farm.  Among the few community gardens in the county, waitlists are often a barrier for those who wish to garden in Santa Clara County’s cities.  Much of Santa Clara Valley which contained the richest soils and most productive farms is now developed with homes, roads and businesses.  Community/school gardens and projects involving urban/sustainable farming offer participants ways to be physically active, produce fruit and vegetables and serve as places to educate children, families and other community residents about healthy eating.

Promote and foster organization wellness and provide services to corporations, business, government, institutions, nonprofits and faith-based groups.  Organizations primarily interested in returns on investment have seen that employee health and wellness promises a valuable return.  Two business organizations, United Way and the Entrepreneurs Foundation have expressed interest in providing health fairs to employees involved in these associations.  Other organizations, including government agencies are also interested in implementing health and wellness activities.  THT would create organizational wellness services for employees and constituents of corporations, business, government, institutions, nonprofits and faith-based groups.  The program would consist of education and awareness activities including robust, interesting, engaging, and interactive health fairs.  Employees and constituents would be encouraged to take a health risk assessment to identify health risks and encourage participants to address them through education, counseling and opportunities offered by the organization for healthy nutrition and physical activity.