Healthy Schools
As part of the Healthy Schools initiative, NCHA provides resources, support, and expertise for planning and implementing wellness initiatives and wellness polices in local Northern Colorado school districts.
With support from the Colorado Health Foundation, the North Colorado Health Alliance is currently working with five rural school districts in Weld County for long-term health and wellness planning. These include:
- RE-1: Platteville, Gilcrest, and LaSalle.
- RE-2: Eaton,
- RE-4: Windsor
- RE-5J: Johnstown -Milliken
- RE-8: Ft. Lupton
Annie Baker, one of our Healthy Schools coordinators, is currently completing her last year of healthy schools implementation grants which will wrap up in June 2020 in RE-1 and RE-8. For more information on the progress of these implementation grants:
Each of her districts have completed two years of healthy schools planning, culminating in updating their wellness policy in writing a wellness action plan for the district.
The Health Schools program just completed the first year in a two-year implementation grant in which they installed hydration stations in every school, activated school greenhouses and gardens, purchased IHT heart monitor sets and drum fit equipment. The Healthy Schools program works with the “whole school, whole community, whole child” model to address all 10 components of school health. These include physical activity, nutrition, social-emotional health, community involvement, family engagement and more!
Behavioral health support is a huge focus in all of Annie’s school districts, as the rural districts served by the Healthy Schools program disproportionately experience many behavioral health issues including suicide.