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Children's Healthy Weight CoIIN is Structured for Success

In recent years, the Collaborative Improvement & Innovation Network (CoIIN) concept has gained traction. For the state public health nutritionists (PHNs) participating in ASPHN's Children's Healthy Weight CoIIN, it is a framework for success. Supported by a diverse group of national experts, these professionals are working on innovative solutions to one of the nation's most pressing health challenges — curbing childhood obesity.

ASPHN's Children's Healthy Weight CoIIN is comprised of 18 state teams representing 13 states including Arkansas, California, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas and Wisconsin.

The teams are focused on promoting breastfeeding, physical activity and innovative nutrition integration within state Title V programs. Participants are learning from one another, sharing best practices and lessons learned, and tracking their progress toward common benchmarks. 

Outcomes that yield results will soon be available for easy implementation by PHNs in other states. These evidence informed policies and practices will help mothers and their children shape healthy habits for life.  

According to Marci Brewer, Louisiana's Team Lead, "this process gives us a low risk way to test out strategies with a level of additional support." Skylar Swords, Florida's Team Lead, concurs. "The opportunity to have so many resources and see what other states are doing is one of the best aspects of participating in the CoIIN. It gives us a chance to conduct in-depth work with the support of an outside organization."

For more information about ASPHN's Healthy Weight CoIIN, please contact Sandy Perkins, MS, RD, LD, at sandy@asphn.org or 814 255-2829 ext. 702. To download an infographic about the CoIIN, click here

Founded in 1952, ASPHN is a non-profit membership organization that provides state and national leadership on food and nutrition policy, programs and services aimed at improving the health of our population. ASPHN’s membership is composed of more than 300 public health nutritionists located throughout all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. ASPHN's vision is healthy eating and active living for everyone. You can find ASPHN on the web at www.asphn.org and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/asphn.

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number, U7NMC30388, Pediatric Obesity CoIIN 2.0 (also known as the Children’s Healthy Weight CoIIN) for $300,000. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.