Health Promotion and Public Education

Public education plays a key role in helping to raise awareness of public health issues. Through public education and health promotion, we are helping to influence healthy lifestyle choices—combating childhood obesity by providing families with information to make informed decisions and sustain healthy lifestyle behaviors.

One of our hallmark strategies is the dissemination of the healthy lifestyle messages fiveSMART^® and 5-4-3-2-1 Go!^® . The fiveSMART message provides guidance for three different phases of early childhood (prenatal, 0-12 months and 1-3 years). 5-4-3-2-1 Go! is focused on children and families, and recommends daily goals for food and physical activity behaviors: 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 4 servings of water, 3 servings of low-fat dairy, 2 or less hours of recreational screen time, and 1 or more hours of physical activity.

However, education strategies alone cannot address the complexity of issues such as childhood obesity. We partner with youth-serving organizations to develop environments that support healthy eating and physical activity.

CLOCC staff also lead training sessions for both private and public sector organizations to build the capacity for health promotion in key settings such as schools, clinics, and among community health workers. We have also teamed with other health organizations such as the Chicago Department of Public Health to launch a variety of public education campaigns that suggest community- and city-wide improvements that could lead to healthier behavior.

For more information about Health Promotion and Public Education, please refer to the Blueprint.