Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC) is The California Endowment's four-year, $26 million Initiative that aims to fight the growing childhood obesity epidemic in California. Initiative objectives include increasing opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating for children and families, particularly in low-income communities, and developing policy changes that will reduce the risk factors for diabetes and obesity. The most prominent feature of HEAC is a community component that provides grants to six collaboratives across the state consisting of a community based organization, school district, and local public health department.
Abundantia serves as a consultant to the evaluation team, led by Samuels and Associates in collaboration with UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health and the UCLA School of Public Health. Abundantia constructed and maintains a customized, web-based data management tool and project website, referred to as the Logic Map.
The evaluation design uses a multi-method design to measure HEAC impact on a range of outcomes from children's diet and physical activity changes, to changes in the built environment, and organizational and legislative policy change. The HEAC evaluation provides an opportunity to demonstrate the impact of community level prevention of chronic diseases and make an important contribution to building the pool of evidence linking improvements in the environment to healthy eating and active living outcomes, particularly in low income communities of color. An Initiative Logic Map (internal web site) provides a cross-sectoral, systematic approach to organizing evaluation data and information. The Logic Map allows for sharing of strategies, results, and resources.
