At this week’s meeting of the Spartanburg Childhood Obesity Taskforce (COTF), I was reminded of the term “collaboraction”. Brendan Buttimer wrote about it recently in this space. On this day, sixteen members of the taskforce met to discuss current successes and plan future projects. The taskforce meets several times a year to choose, champion and implement community projects that positively impact child health in our county. The collaborative action of the members, who represent over 30 public, private, governmental, and nonprofit entities, builds projects, programs and the greater community.

The current COTF initiative will support local childcare centers by providing custom designs to upgrade outdoor spaces. The Preventing Obesity by Design (POD) is an ongoing comprehensive health promotion design intervention that transforms childcare outdoor space into an interactive natural learning environment. Almost 30 POD projects have been implemented regionally and evaluations are very promising for our local efforts. By transforming outdoor space in line with practices developed by landscape architects and child development specialists, centers have seen significant increases in activity levels among their children. Improvements in children’s behavior and mood were also noticed by center staff. Where designs include garden, centers have seen a new interest in eating vegetables, growing food and interacting with natural elements like worms and butterflies. The results of changes made have been overwhelmingly positive.

Here in Spartanburg, five centers chosen from a pool of applicants will work with POD experts to create designs specific to their centers. Ongoing support with implementation, expansion, maintenance, and evaluation of each project will be provided by the local Department of Health and Environmental Control, the Natural Learning Initiative at NC State, the Clemson Department of Landscape Architecture, ABC Quality, the SC Child Care Resource and Referral Service and other COTF organizations. In the months ahead, watch for opportunities to contribute to these projects with your time, resources, and talents. Talk about collaboraction! Let’s go, Spartanburg!

For more about Partners for Active Living, visit www.active-living.org