All sectors of our society have a stake in the health of our children and need to play a role in overcoming the obesity epidemic facing our nation’s youth. Key challenges are how to bring this “whole system” of diverse stakeholders together to form sustained partnerships, while ensuring diversity of leadership and shared ownership and implementation of solutions.

The Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools initiative is a true public-private partnership that involves widespread community participation and collaboration in improving the nutrition and physical activity of our children.

As a first step in planning the Healthy Kids, Healthy School initiative, HISD, National Dairy Council and DairyMAX invited a cross-section of stakeholders to join a Steering Committee. Representatives from 23 organizations stepped forward to serve, including distinguished leaders from education, health, business, community and government as well as concerned parents – and they have been actively involved in planning the event and garnering support.

The Steering Committee was tasked with designing an Appreciative Inquiry-based Summit that would involved the “whole system” in magnifying and strengthening HISD’s existing approaches to wellness and identify new approaches, tools and resources to address the nutrition and physical activity needs of Houston’s school children – and dramatically expand the level of community involvement and support.

	At the beginning of 2009, a Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools’ National Advisory Board was formed to assist in broadening the reach and impact of the Healthy Schools, Healthy Kids initiative. The members of the board are national thought leaders representing a cross-section of stakeholder
groups and subject matter experts. The Board has provided valuable advice and counsel on research, trends and possible partners, as well as guidance on how the Appreciative Inquiry approach may be used to address nutrition and physical activity in other large urban school districts.