2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

Using Data for City and Regional Strategies 231
park facilities, improve access to sidewalks and hike and bike trails, and
increase access to fresh produce, with special emphasis on neighborhoods
of high need as denoted in the maps. Elected officials have used
the maps in local policy discussions and referenced them in national
presentations. The maps produced by COH were used again when the
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation initiated a multiyear place-based
initiative in two high-need neighborhoods, extensively engaging community
members in decisionmaking to focus on improving physical
activity and nutrition.
Over the next several years, COH continued its work mapping the
student health indicators. Annual time series maps documented some
improved health status in youth. In one example, an area in North
Austin experienced unusual improvement in health outcomes from the
2007–08 school year to the 2009–10 school year. At the beginning of the
period, more than 70 percent of the middle school children in the area
had poor cardiovascular health. By 2009–10, the rates had fallen to less
than 50 percent for much of the area. COH learned from the school district
staff that the district had piloted HOPSports, a program designed
to increase physical activity at the three middle schools that served the
neighborhood. COH presented this story and updated analysis for the
entire district at a second AISD community summit in November 2010
(Seton Healthcare Family 2010).
Meanwhile, AISD continued to design and implement programs to
improve children’s health. The AISD School Board included student health
as a core value in its strategic plan for 2010 to 2015 (Austin Independent
School District 2011). One action step was to “establish goals at each school
to prepare children to be healthy, fit, and ready to learn.” For example, the
plan lists a goal to move the percentage of middle school students with a
healthy BMI from 57 percent in 2008–09 to 78 percent by 2011–12 and
100 percent by 2014–15. The plan also includes staged strategies and
objectives to meet the stated goals, such as enhanced physical education
curriculum and health education in schools (p. 21).
The private sector also participated in the COH coalition and developed
new community resources for addressing child health. The Texas
Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity at Dell
Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas opened a clinic in April 2010
(Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas 2010). The clinic built
on the success of the Healthy Living, Happy Living/Vida Sana, Vida Feliz
multidisciplinary, family-based childhood obesity intervention.