Executive Summery

The key issue HealthStart foundation works to mitigate is the prevalence of childhood obesity and long-term chronic illness. HealthStart utilizes theory-based programs to generate behavioral change and educate children on the importance of health. Their programs are tailored to young audiences age four to eleven and have been implemented in a variety of schools and afterschool care programs.

The graduate project’s service population were parents, teachers, and community members of Bell and Coryell County. These two counties have a high rate of food insecurity, childhood poverty, and single income households who may not have access to healthy food options. Many of the cities in these two counties have limited access to recreational health services and healthy food alternatives. The two counties have a majority of residents who are predominantly Caucasian, with the second largest demographic being Hispanic.

The primary goal for this internship was to determine one city in Bell and Coryell County that HealthStart can expand their services into. The secondary goal was to provide the organization with locations, community leaders, and assets they can utilize if they decide to move forward and expand into the counties. Finally, the last goal was to gauge the opinions of the community members to determine if there was interest or a perceived need for HealthStart’s services. Some of the objectives of this project were to collect community data, work collaboratively with public health officials and key stake holders, and analyze data sets to make an informed decision about the population.

Some of the activites conducted was survey participation recruitment, in order to collect data points. This was done through internet campaigns, in person flyers, and finally email contact list. The second activity was weekly meeting to keep the organization up to date about the progress. Finally, data mining to collect statistical information and demographic information about the two counties was also done.

Three surveys for the organization were created, a flyer for survey recruitment, community contact list, and three reports compiling the results of the surveys and recommendations was created. Bell and Coryell County were good candidates for HealthStart to expand into. Any of the cities were ideal candidates for expansion, the residents demonstrated an interest in their services and implementation into their children’s schools.