Partner: Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, Children’s Center for the Child & Community
Program Name: Preventing Childhood Obesity Community Grants
Children’s Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., funds community initiatives that aim to prevent childhood obesity through its Preventing Childhood Obesity Community (PCO) Grants program.
GRETCHEN SWANSON CENTER FOR NUTRITION'S ROLE:
From 2013 to 2015, the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition received funding from the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center PCO grants program. Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition worked in collaboration with the Omaha Nutrition Education Collaborative to produce five, brief instructional videos on how early care providers and parents can educate children, up to age five, about nutrition during meals through conversation, by asking questions, making statements, setting rules and praising good behavior.
In 2016, the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition was selected by Children’s Hospital & Medical Center to conduct an evaluation of the overall impact of the PCO grants program. The evaluation included interviewing grantees to discuss reach of the programs, grantee organization readiness to complete projects, and assess challenges and successes for the organizations trying to address childhood obesity in our community. Information was compiled to determine key findings and recommendations for evaluation strategies to increase capacity among community organizations, determine overall impact of the grants program and how to strengthen the grants program.
In 2017, the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition partnered with the newly developed Children’s Center for the Child & Community to rebuild the request for proposals (RFP) and scoring metrics for the PCO grants program, as well as aid in refining the areas of focus. In addition, the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition helped lead a workshop to introduce the new RFP process to potential grantees, explaining new aspects of the grant.
In collaboration with Children’s Center for the Child & Community, the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition launched a Learning Collaborative with sessions for grantees that focus on building capacity in areas such as evaluation, implementation and sustainability. In addition, the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition provides evaluation technical assistance for the PCO grantees on an as needed basis.
