A Whole Child Approach to Helping Kids Thrive - Action for Healthy Kids [Podcast Series]
[:55] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Rob Bisceglie
Rob Bisceglie is the CEO of Action for Healthy Kids
[1:08] Health as a right for kids
“[A]nd it ignited a passion in me around issues, specifically in that organization for maternal and child health, and specifically around kids’ issues and health issues. Because I got to go to work every single day and think about and work on and fight for the rights of kids when it comes to health. And I think that health is a right for children.”
[4:00] Engaging parents in advocacy for kids’ health
“And now I feel like we really need to seize this opportunity, as hopefully the pandemic is coming to an end sometime soon, that we engage parents in a really constructive way.”
[6:18] Family-school partnerships
“[W]e fundamentally believe that there needs to be a partnership between the school and parents and caregivers and families in order to foster real change. Because we know that kids spend part of their day in school and then they spend part of their day and their summer often times out of school. And so that partnership between schools and families is really critical.”
[10:21] Action for Healthy Kids evolution
“And so there's a framework in the school health space—you probably know about it—called the whole school whole community whole child framework. It was created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one of their partner organizations. And it is the most science based, most evidence based, best health framework for kids that exists. And that is at the core of what we do at Action for Healthy Kids.”
[16:38] Beginning in local health and wellness advocacy
“My oldest daughter was entering our local school. And I realized that we didn't have a health and wellness program. And so I literally gathered some of the materials of Action for Healthy Kids, walked into my school building, met with the principal, who was a health and fitness advocate and passionate about it himself and just hadn't had the resources or the support or the volunteer support to begin a program. And together we started our health and wellness programming in our local school district.”
[19:37] Finding champions
“Once you find those leaders in your school, building a team around them, engaging classroom teachers, PE teachers, school food service is incredibly important. So it's all about building that school health team. And starting with someone who's really passionate about the work.”
[23:50] Foundations of lifelong health
“And so this idea of the three foundations of lifelong health, that is what we at Action for Healthy Kids have adopted underneath our core framework. We are pursuing a life for every child that has those three foundations and all of our programming and all of our work and all of what our wonderful staff does every single day is to pursue that for the kids in our network.”
[27:42] Whole child health approach
“The only way I know to approach that issue is from a whole child perspective. I have spent 15 years studying and experiencing this. I see no other way. All the issues that kids face are intertwined. You can't separate them out and say, Oh, we're gonna deal with the nutrition or the physical activity or make sure that they have a connection to a school nurse or make sure that they have mental health support. It is all those things, it's the only way to do it.”
