![two Kentucky parents brainstorm ideas](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090508055515im_/http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/summer07/images/obesity.jpg)
The We Can! childhood obesity-prevention program involves parents, caregivers, and community leaders in helping to improve children's activities and nutritional habits. Above, two Kentucky parents brainstorm ideas for the "Less Sit, More Fit" activity during a training session.
Photo courtesy of Kentucky We Can!
By Keith Ferrell
The success of an ongoing childhood fitness and weight-loss program sponsored by five NIH institutes is spreading across the United States. Here's how you can get involved in We Can!—Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition.
"The heart of We Can! is empowering parents to see that they can do this for their children," says Anita Courtney, the state of Kentucky's coordinator for the We Can! obesity-prevention program. "Of all the things that we parents do to try to help our children, this gift of teaching them healthy behaviors as a part of life is the best gift we can give our kids."
To help counter the current epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States, five NIH institutes joined together in 2005 to start and promote an obesity-prevention program "We Can!"—"Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition." Today, the program has grown to include 369 We Can! community sites in 43 states, is supported by dozens of national and state health care organizations, and such corporate partners as Alltel, Delphi, Mutual of Omaha, Univision Communications, Wal-Mart, and others. They key to its success, according to Courtney, is to get parents and community leaders actively involved in influencing children's eating and exercise decisions in new ways.
Courtney has already trained more than 200 Kentucky parents and community volunteers through the program's four 90-minute instructional sessions.
![We Can! Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090508055515im_/http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/summer07/images/obesity_wecan.jpg)
We Can! is unique among existing youth obesity-prevention initiatives because it focuses its activities and education on parents and caregivers—the primary group influencing children and adolescents. Joining in this effort with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) are the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
The program, which is aimed at families and entire communities, is an outstanding example of how NIH research is being translated into significant beneficial results for the American public, notes Karen Donato, coordinator of the NHLBI Obesity Education Initiative. (See accompanying article, "Obesity Research: A New Approach.")
We Can! focuses on three important behaviors: improved food choices, increased physical activity, and reduced recreational screen time.
To Find Out More
Visit www.medlineplus.gov or
www.nichd.nih.gov and type "We Can!" in either of the Search boxes.
Fighting the obesity battle properly requires not only a collective effort to alter and improve children's nutritional habits and exercise patterns, but also work to learn more about the causes of childhood obesity in the first place. We Can! community sites include schools, YMCAs, parks and recreation departments, worksites, and hospitals. The new We Can! City program helps mayors and policy makers to mobilize community members. South Bend, Ind., Gary Ind., and Roswell, Ga. were the first three We Can! cities.