Illinois Public Media Builds Successful Partnerships for Community Engagement Initiative
In order to showcase the projects that stations are working on and provide examples of successful funding and partnering initiatives, the Grant Center newsletter will highlight one station initiative each month. This month, the story is from Illinois Public Media. Their C-U Fit Families community engagement initiative is the result of more than two years of relationship-building.
After Illinois Public Media began looking for groups, business, people and organizations in Champaign – Urbana (C-U), IL who were working to reduce childhood obesity and created connections with local school districts, hospitals, the local public health district, university professors, park districts, fitness companies, food co-ops, libraries and others, they established C-U Fit Families as a network to discuss the local health concerns. The network provided these organizations, businesses and individuals a safe place for leaders to share best practices, take risks, communicate, collaborate and take action in the fight against local childhood obesity. C-U Fit Families is, according to their website, “a coalition of campus and community organizations working to promote healthy eating and active living in the home, in schools and child care environments and in the community.”
C-U Fit Families fights obesity using the following techniques: physical activity (building in exercise as part of a daily routine), nutrition (access to healthy food at school and home and in nearby stores), food advertising and community connections. To make sure that the community is aware of C-U Fit Families, Illinois Public Media televised this short promotional video.
Now that C-U Fit Families has identified who in the community is committed to working together to fight obesity, they have begun to search for funding opportunities that will allow them to continue to promote good health. Read C-U Fit Families’ blog and website.
Though long, Illinois Public Media’s process of building strong partnerships will be essential as they move forward. Strong partnerships will allow Illinois Public Media and C-U Fit Families to apply for a variety of different types of grants and will prove that they are committed to and capable of implementing successful projects.
