National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability Awards Funding to Advance Partnerships for Inclusive Health
March 13, 2020 — The National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) at the UAB-Lakeshore Research Collaborative announces awards for the Partnership for Inclusive Health Innovation Grants. These grants, awarded to seven prominent organizations, builds off the work of the global Commit to Inclusion campaign and its Partnership for Inclusive Health to unite organizations behind disability inclusionary practices in healthy community efforts.
The Partnership for Inclusive Health Innovation Grants assists organizations in advancing community health inclusion efforts. Organizations will expand on their commitment to inclusion and demonstrate how it is operationalized within the organization’s existing or new programs, policies and services. The overall effort focuses on creating equitable access and inclusion for people with disabilities to engage in meaningful participation in mainstream services and programs across the United States.
The projects will create or advance disability inclusion by assessing their organizational readiness for inclusion and training appropriate leaders and staff on an inclusive organizational change process, building capacity for effective operationalization of the organization’s Commitment to Inclusion, and selecting inclusion strategies for implementing sustainable, inclusive programs, policies and services.
The project is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) and will be led by NCHPAD staff.
America Walks
Promoting Inclusion in Tribal Communities
America Walks is a national non-profit organization that engages a network of individuals, organizations, and partners across the US focused on advancing safe, accessible, equitable and enjoyable places to walk and move. America Walks will increase understanding and provide resources for the development of inclusive planning and advocacy for safe, accessible walking and moving in tribal communities.
Blue Star Families
Building an Inclusivity Strategy to Support Military Families
Blue Star Families (BSF) is the largest community-based military family organization in the country. BSF serves Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve, wounded warriors, Caregivers, and transitioning veterans and their family members. BSF will implement a multi-part program to acquire new expertise, attract a target population with a range of different disabilities, pilot accessible outdoor programs in two locations and then create plans of action across all funded chapter sites to ensure that inclusive health concerns are an integral part of overall community-building activities.
CATCH Global Foundation
Physical Activity Demonstration Videos for Inclusion of Youth with Disability
CATCH Global Foundation’s mission is to improve children’s health worldwide by developing, disseminating and sustaining the CATCH platform. The Foundation links underserved schools and communities to the resources necessary to create and sustain healthy change for future generations. CATCH will create and promote five short videos for physical education teachers and out-of-school time (OST) instructors that demonstrate basic strategies and adaptations for including youth with physical and sensory disabilities in CATCH activities.
Girls on the Run
Reducing Barriers to Implementation of Inclusive Girls on the Run Programming
Girls on the Run (GOTR) International has made a strong commitment to serving girls with disabilities. In order to impact girls with disabilities on a national scale it is critical that supports are in place for implementation at the local council level. GOTR will capture and expand photography that highlights girls with disabilities in their marketing and program materials and will establish a disability inclusion fund for local councils to aid in implementing an inclusive curriculum.
JCC Association of North America
Expanding Training and Implementation of Discover: CATCH for Youth with Disabilities
Discover: CATCH brings a Jewish focus to the curriculum, provides a way for JCCs to promote a love of physical activity and healthy nutritional habits through their health and wellness, early childhood education, family engagement and Jewish living and learning departments. Through this project, staff from eight JCCs will receive training on the adapted Discover: CATCH program and return to their JCCs to conduct an onsite workshop for all staff working in early childhood education. Each JCC will develop and carry out an Inclusion Plan to determine how they will implement the adapted curriculum at their respective locations.
Land Trust Alliance
Improving Access to the Natural World for People with Disability
The Land Trust Alliance will establish a National Advisory Committee on Inclusive Health and Disability that will serve as a platform to amplify the voices, knowledge and lived experience of leaders in the inclusive health and disability sectors while building the capacity of the Alliance and its members to design and implement successful community-centered conservation models. The Alliance will also focus on providing support and guidance around the training and capacity needs of land trusts. The work and learnings from this project will be presented at Rally: The National Land Conversation Conference in October 2020.
Sound Generations
Enhance®Fitness Review and Adaptation for Individuals with Physical Disabilities
Sound Generations will work with NCHPAD to conduct an expert review of the Enhance®Fitness (EF) curriculum, website, exercise selection, training materials and program delivery for gaps in disability inclusion or accessibility which will support efforts to improve health outcomes for diverse adult populations. Based on the adaptation recommendations from NCHPAD, Sound Generations will pilot the adapted version of EF and evaluate outcomes. Findings will be used to revise and/or create new resources that will be distributed through their Train-the-Trainer network. Successful integration of this adapted version of EF will improve participants with disability program access nationally.
For more information, please visit www.nchpad.org and http://committoinclusion.org/inclusivehealth/.
About The National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD)
Founded in 1999, NCHPAD is a national resource and practice center that empowers communities, organizations and individuals through training, technical assistance, advocacy, thought leadership, health promotion, and health communication to create livable places, healthy people, and sustainable inclusion (CDC Grant # NU27DD001157).