Resources
Healthy Eating
United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service website outlining the new Smart Snacks guidelines. This webpage contains resources that help schools identify food times that meet Smart Snacks criteria.
Alliance Product Calculator is designed to take the “guesswork out of nutrition guidelines.” You can use the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to see if your beverage, snack, entrée or side meets the United States Department of Agriculture’s Smart Snacks Guidelines.
Fact sheet outlining the United States Department of Agriculture’s All Foods Sold in Schools Standards.
Developed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the guide provides access to various Smart Snacks resources, including tracking tools, webinars, and fundraising handouts.
United Stated Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service website outlining the School Breakfast Program. Visit this site to access the program’s fact sheet, learn about the program’s history and link to resources enabling you to establish or expand the breakfast service at your school.
Under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture, the “National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools and residential child care institutions. Its website provides access to the program’s fact sheet and history.
“Smarter Lunchrooms use easy-no cost changes to encourage students to select, eat, and enjoy healthier foods in school without eliminating their choice.” The Smarter Lunchrooms Movement website connects you with resources, ideas and ways to get involved. The project led by the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Program and is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service and Food and Nutrition Service.
Sample policies covering organizational healthy catering, vending machines cafeteria and company wide nutrition.
An Eat Well Work Well document outlining the criteria for healthier choice vending items along with steps on how to read nutrition labels.
A “tool designed to assess the number of healthier choices available in the vending machines at your organization.” – Eat Well Work Well
Part of the American Heart Association’s Healthy Workplace food and beverage toolkit, this guide provides action steps and recommendations aimed at improving the quality of vending machine items in order to encourage the establishment of a culture of health.
Eat Well Work Well’s strategy guide for implementing a Healthy workplace cafeteria initiative.
Eat Smart Move More North Carolina’s guide to bringing more fresh produce to your setting. This toolkit provides planning, assessment, partnership, marketing and programming tips.
Part of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s Healthy Workplace Food and Beverage Toolkit, this guide offers nutrition standards and recommendation by food category.
Part of the American Heart Association and American Stoke Association’s Healthy Workplace Food and Beverage Toolkit, the linked guide supplies directions for healthier cooking methods (think: bake, blanch, grill, poach, etc.) along with food preparation tips.
Part of the USDA’s MyPlate family, track your foods and physical activity, get personalized nutrition and physical activity plan and get tips and support to help you make healthier choices and plan ahead. For SuperTracker Nutrition Lesson Plans for High School Students click here.
Tobacco Cessation
“Quit Now Virginia is a toll-free tobacco cessation phone counseling service that is provided to Virginia residents aged 13 and older 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Physical Activity
The Community Preventive Services Task Force’s findings, recommendations, considerations for implementation and support materials for an enhanced school-based physical education.
Map for the mountain bike trail system at Danville’s Angler Park
“Planning tool that provides step-by-step guidelines for anyone interested in implementing a stairwell initiative”
A series of videos from the Alliance For A Healthier Generation designed to get you moving. Topics: Zumba, Yoga and Tae Bo.
Five ideas teachers can use to add gross motor movement to the classroom schedule
135 examples of in classroom physical activity breaks from the American Heart Association
Creating Healthy Spaces
Eat Smart Move More North Carolina’s Bring Fresh Produce to Your Setting “is a planning and resource guide for anyone who would like to have fruits and vegetables, especially locally grown, available for purchase in their worksites, place of worship or neighborhood or at any gathering place through a partnership with a produce vendor.
Michigan State University Extension’s guide for low and zero cost alternatives to using food as a reward.
This fact sheet from the Center for Science in the Public Interest address the research around using food and physical activity as forms of rewards or punishments. The guide also provides examples of beneficial rewards for children that are also inexpensive.
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s 5 steps for celebrating in a healthy way at your school or worksite. This also includes non-food celebration ideas as well as healthy snack and beverage ideas.
Alberta Centre for Active Living’s Challenges and Competitions report for decreasing sedentary behavior in the workplace. This report characterizes effective challenges and competitions, while providing resources to ensure continued success.
In this guide, Kaiser Permanente’s Thriving Schools partnership outlines the steps needed to create a teacher and staff lounge that promotes stress reduction, increases engagement and improves overall health.
The Virginia Department of Health’s toolkit is designed to help employers establishes a comprehensive, 100 percent tobacco free environment that will (1) provide a safe and healthy environment for employees and management, (2) protect all employees from exposure to second and third-hand smoke and (3) provide cessation support to smokers who want to quit smoking or using tobacco. This toolkit also comes with free technical assistance from a Tobacco Use Control Coordinator near you.
Centers for Disease Control and Preventions web-based guide identifying and defining the effective characteristics of an effective health education curriculum.
“The National Health Education Standards (NHES) were developed to establish, promote and support health enhancing behaviors for all students in all grade levels…The NHES provide a framework for teachers, administrators, and policy makers in designing or selecting curricula, allocation instructional resources and assessing student achievement and progress.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s September 2011 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report outlines the 9 guidelines for promoting healthy eating and physical activity in schools. To see a summary for the guidelines, see Appendix A (pg. 72-73).
School Health Guidelines to Promote Healthy Eating and Physical Activity
The Walk to Jerusalem and The Walk to Bethlehem are walking programs “developed by the St. John Providence Health System parish nursing and designed to increase the physical, spiritual and emotional health of participants.”
Part of Eat Smart Move More North Carolina, this planning and resource guide is focused towards church and community health leaders. It describes common health issues of African Americans, examines why church-based programs and effective in improving health and provides steps that church can take to address healthy eating and physical activity.
In 2011 the National AfterSchool Association adopted standards for healthy eating and physical activity for out-of school time. This 2015 guide outlines these standards and provides best practices for implementation.
“The focus of this America After 3PM special report, “Kids on the Move: Afterschool Programs Promoting Healthy Eating and Physical Activity,” is on the role that afterschool programs are playing to support the health and wellness of their students.” This report covers parents’ expectations, satisfaction and opportunities to improve afterschool programs’ nutritional and physical activity offerings.
Kids on the Move: Afterschool Programs Promoting Healthy Eating and Physical Activity
Healthy Meetings and Events
Authored by the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity, the Health Meeting Toolkit addresses the following four main topic areas: (1) nutrition, (2) physical activity, (3) tobacco-free and (4) sustainability. Its tiered system of standard healthy meeting and superior healthy meetings make the program adaptable to any organization who wishes to use it.
Walking meeting guidelines from the University of California Riverside. Includes benefits, preparations and considerations.
Part of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s Healthy Workplace Food and Beverage Toolkit, the linked guide provides general guidance, nutrition standards for beverages and healthier snack and meal ideas for meeting and special events.
“This guide provides ideas, tools and inspiration to ensure that the meetings you plan or facilitate are healthy ones. You’ll be able to design healthier meetings in which participants can eat well, move more, go green and practice efficiency.”- Kaiser Permanente
Provided through the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association this healthy environments food and beverage toolkit gives guideposts for healthy eating, ensuring healthy meals and tips for selecting and working with vendors
Community Gardens
Clemson Cooperative Extension’s guide for starting community gardens. This toolkit provides advice for starting both urban and rural community gardens.
Part of the Hearts beatback project this guide outlines the positive impacts of having onsite gardens.
Joint Use Agreements
A research brief of Active Living Research, the guide discusses the need for share use agreements to provide “access to safe, affordable and convenient recreational facilities” as a “critical strategy for helping children and adults become more active, especially in lower-income communities and communities of color that often lack such facilities”
Four, downloadable model joint use agreements from ChangeLab Solutions.
A ChangeLab Solutions guide to Shared use for Faith-Based Organizations. This guide covers what shared use for faith-based organizations look like, how to make agreements official, liability and insurance as well as provide multiple case-studies and shared use checklist.
Active Living Research’s Joint Use Agreements database lets you search through articles, research briefs, webinars, videos and other sources regarding joint use agreements. Topics covered included land use, physical activity, food access, built environment and more.
Safe Routes to School
Active Living Research’s research review highlights findings from several studies determining the impact of Safe Routes to School on walking, biking and overall physical activity.
Comprehensive guide to promote walking to school from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Challenges and Recognition
Developed to promote Michigan nutrition standards in schools, this guide provides ideas for school based wellness challenges and staff recognition ideas.
From the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, this scorecard makes it easy to track how much water you consume. Challenge fellow teachers, school staff and students to drink 8 glasses of water for 10 days.
App that allows for the creation of team challenges, action plans and social motivation
Census 2020
Over the next few months, we will be encouraging everyone in our region to participate in the 2020 Census. Census data is used to allocate funding for various public services - many of which impact our community's health. For this reason, it is essential that every single person is counted accurately. Watch this video for more information.
In order to ensure a complete count, we need many partners to advocate for census participation. Any person, business, organization, or institution can be a census partner by displaying posters, passing out printed materials, and educating your neighbors and colleagues about the importance of the Census. If you are connected to a hard-to-count population, your help is especially important. We know our community best and can help the Census Bureau by sharing information with the people who need it most. To partner and to receive resources and materials to share, please contact Valerie Warner at 267-780-2530 or valerie.a.warner@2020census.gov
What will I be asked? What won't I be asked? Find your answers here.
Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma Hope strives to give the most accurate and helpful directions for addressing mesothelioma symptoms, learning about different mesothelioma treatment options, and providing resources and guidance to you for every step of the way.
Mesothelioma Hope was founded by a group of medical and legal advocates whose goal was to provide a comprehensive database for people diagnosed with mesothelioma, and we are dedicated to getting patients and their families the help they need.
Helping Mesothelioma Patients Improve Their Prognosis
The Mesothelioma Prognosis Network helps mesothelioma patients and their families find hope through free resources. Together, we can fight this rare cancer.
As a national organization, their advocates are available to patients all across the country. Visit their website or call (877) 282-3464 for more information.
A specialized mesothelioma treatment center is key to any mesothelioma treatment plan. The Mesothelioma Prognosis Network provides information on notable treatment centers and why it is so important to find the right center for you. These centers see more patients than other cancer centers that don’t focus on the disease. Start your search here.
The Mesothelioma Center also provides resources for understanding and treating mesothelioma including a monthly online support group where we discuss a variety of topics pertaining to cancer patients; an on-staff doctor and nurse available to answer any medical-related questions; 24-hour live chat support; Patient Advocates that work 1-on-1 with individuals to help them find local doctors, treatment centers and support groups.
COVID-19 Vaccinations
As of April 5, 2021, anyone over the age of 12 is eligible to sign up and receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Find Vaccine Clinics
VaccineFinder shows you locations across the country that have available COVID-19 vaccines. VaccineFinder will provide you with a link to schedule the appointment through the location’s website or with a phone number to call to make an appointment.
The Virginia Department of Health has also created a search tool for finding local vaccination clinics. On this site, you'll check the box that indicates you are seeking a COVID-19 vaccination, enter your zip code and hit search. This tool will allow you to schedule your own appointment.
Memory Care
This guide will cover the cost of memory care in Virginia, financial assistance options for paying for memory care, free memory care resources in the state, and a directory of memory care facilities in Virginia.
See additional resources below:
Health Insurance and Medicare
The Affordable Health Insurance website offers helpful information regarding Medicare Plans in Virginia, who qualifies, how to compare plans, costs, and other resources.
