CHANGE Program
Save the Children created the CHANGE (Creating Healthy, Active, and Nurturing Growing-up Environments) Program to increase rural children’s access to regular physical activity and a healthy snack in the after school environment.

CHANGE Brochure (2009)
CHANGE Brochure (2008)
CHANGE Healthy Snack Standards
CHANGE Physical Activity Curriculum
Contact CHANGE Program Staff

Building the Evidence Base
In 2007-2009, Save the Children is partnering with colleagues at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy to design, implement, and evaluate the first large-scale childhood obesity prevention intervention in rural America. The intervention will explore how to create supportive environments to encourage low-income rural children to increase their daily physical activity levels, reduce leisure-screen time, and develop healthy eating habits.

CHANGE Formative Research Summary
CHANGE Study Fact Sheet
CHANGE Study Summary
Tufts University Shape Up Somerville
Shape Up Somerville Year #1 Results
Tufts University's Children in Balance

CHANGE National Advisory Council
The CHANGE Study is guided by a multidisciplinary group of experts in child health and development, obesity prevention, physical activity, cultural diversity, and rural sociology.

CHANGE National Advisory Council Members
CHANGE National Advisory Council Meeting Agenda 

Reports and Resources
In 2005, we conducted a national qualitative study, Nutrition and Physical Activity Field Assessment of Children in Rural America, that examined obesity among low-income children in rural America.

U.S. Child Obesity Prevalence Map (2008)
2007-2008 U.S. Programs Partner List
Nutrition and Physical Activity Field Assessment (2005)

Recent Media Coverage

Capitol Hill Panel – Obesity Prevention and the IMPACT Act (June 2008)
JAMA Editorial - Community-based Obesity Prevention (Dec. 2007)
ABC Nightline's Report on Childhood Obesity (June 2007)
Community Fat Fight (May 2007)

How You Can Help
Help create a better future for U.S. children in need and break the cycle of poverty. Help us provide regular physical activity and a healthy snack to children living in remote rural regions of the Mississippi River Delta, the Deep South, Appalachia, Native American reservations in the Southwest, and California's San Bernardino Valley and Central Valley.

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