Raising healthy kids starts at home,
follows children to school and
extends out to the rest of the community.

The Working on Wellness (WOW!) Coalition brings together organizations and people to help kids stay healthy. We support their work to find and implement solutions that encourage healthy habits where kids live, learn, pray and play.

The WOW Coalition is one of ten North Carolina coalitions funded through Healthy People, Healthy Carolinas to implement and evaluate the impact of evidence-based interventions. Healthy People, Healthy Carolinas is a bold initiative of The Duke Endowment, which aims to improve community health outcomes with a focus on nutrition, physical activity and prevention of chronic disease.

The WOW Coalition has adopted the overarching goal of improving child health and wellbeing in Granville and Vance counties through health promotion efforts targeting nutrition and physical activity. Poor nutrition, obesity, and physical inactivity have been connected to poor school performance as well as chronic conditions that impact health across the lifespan. By targeting interventions during childhood, health promoting behaviors are more easily adopted and maintained, thereby improving health across the lifespan and avoiding adverse health outcomes in adulthood.

Participating organizations include:

Our school partners include:

The WOW Coalition meets on the 4^th Wednesday of each month, except in July and December. Meetings are held from 12 – 1:30 pm via Zoom until further notice. All meetings are open to the public. To participate in an upcoming meeting, please reach out to Jenna Amweg.

Current WOW Coalition Priorities

The coalition is working to:

Build, strengthen, and sustain our coalition to target primary prevention of lifestyle-related chronic diseases that disproportionately burden rural communities
Empower families to guide the development of policies, programs, and environments that support the development of the whole child
Establish WOW! Teams in all elementary schools within Granville County Public Schools, which will work cooperatively to implement the CATCH program
Implement other evidence-based strategies that encourage good nutrition and regular physical activity for children under the age of 12, with a new focus on those under 5
Develop policy, system and environmental changes that support child health and wellbeing within Granville and Vance counties
Collect, analyze, and disseminate data that sheds light on community needs and assets, supports funding requests to address identified needs, and adds evidence to inform rural public health implementation strategies
Identify avenues to expand this work to neighboring Vance County, based on recent data collection, supported by Triangle North Healthcare Foundation, which indicates an even greater magnitude of childhood obesity in Vance County, when compared to Granville County, and the need for immediate action towards childhood obesity prevention in both counties

For additional information about the WOW Coalition, meeting location, or our activities and functions, please contact:

Jenna Amweg, CPH
WOW Coalition Coordinator
919-693-2141 x174
jamweg@gvdhd.org

Shaq Davis
WOW Community Facilitator
919-693-2141 x297
SDavis@gvdhd.org

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