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Parents as Champions for Healthy Schools

Helping to Promote Student Success

The Parents as Champions for Healthy Schools Project provides regional family leadership development workshops to engage families in advocacy for healthier school environments. The Project is part of SchoolHealthNJ, an initiative of the NJ Department of Health, which incorporates the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) framework. Parents as Champions staff conduct workshops throughout the state.

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Parents as Champions for Healthy Schools Workshop

Our parent engagement workshop provides parent teams with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to partner with school staff to create healthier school environments. In the workshop, parent teams from schools in the region learn about school health, develop advocacy skills,  determine an area of need in their school, and create an action plan to address that need. Parent teams that complete the workshop have an opportunity to apply for a grant in collaboration with their school administration to implement their action plans.

Our parent engagement workshop encourages families and school staff to work together to support and improve the learning, development, and health of students, through the 10 components of the WSCC model:

  1. Health Education
  2. Nutrition Environment and Services
  3. Physical Education and Physical Activity
  4. Health Services
  5. Physical Environment
  6. Social and Emotional Climate
  7. Counseling, Psychological and Social Services
  8. Employee Wellness
  9. Parent Engagement
  10. Community Involvement

Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child

The WSCC model, developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emphasizes that each child, in each school, in each of our communities deserves to be healthy, safe, engaged, supported and challenged. Parents play an important role in promoting healthy schools.

Resources & Materials

Designed to help parents partner with their schools to create a healthy school environment:
  • Action for Healthy Kids |  Register for free and gain access to Parent Leadership resources, including archived webinars and fact sheets to promote healthy eating and physical activity at school
  • Healthy Schools Network, Inc.  |  A clearinghouse with resources on children’s environmental health in schools (avoiding exposure to toxic materials)
  • WholeLife NJ: Eat, Play, Parent  |  This app presents resources for healthy meals, active living, important health topics and parenting tips and tools on one user-friendly platform. Download from the App Store or Google Play.

Articles by SPAN Staff

“Parent Engagement in Healthy Schools.”  |  EP Magazine (February 21, 2017): Describes the importance of parent engagement in school health for children with special needs

Webinar

Parents as Partners for Healthy Schools |  Discusses the importance of parents as partners to promote healthy schools, with tips to engage parents as members of the school health and wellness team. Accompanying Handout (PDF) and Key Webinar Slides

What Our Families Say

Thank you so much for bringing this workshop to Jersey City, it was very inspiring, thought provoking and truly a learning experience.

We learned that we as parents can take action and become involved in our children’s schools; we can help in any way that they need us!

I learned how to be relaxed when standing before people while putting a point across where you have people listening to you.

I learned not to be afraid to start something that I feel compassionate in.

We learned how working with the parents/community will make a better environment for our children and community.

Contact Us

Kasey Dudley

Project Director
201-873-9408

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Brittany McLeod

Project Administrator
(973) 642-8100

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Monique Dujue Wilson

Central and Southern Region Coordinator

(201) 932-6585

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This SPAN project is funded by the federal Maternal and Child Health Block Grant administered through the New Jersey Department of Health, Child and Adolescent Health Program.