Woodridge Task Force to Tackle Childhood Obesity

One in three children in DuPage County are currently overweight or obese.

Woodridge community leaders hope to reserve that trend under the guidance of FORWARD.

This month, officials met with FORWARD to start a process that will ultimately develop three target areas where Woodridge can remove barriers to a healthy lifestyle.

FORWARD stands for Fighting Obesity Reaching Healthy Weight Among Residents of DuPage. The organization falls under the DuPage County Health Department.

Started in 2008, FORWARD has grown to almost 400 individual and organization members across the county. Now the organization is working with individual DuPage County municipalities to address concerns town-by-town.

FORWARD teamed up with five DuPage YMCA’s and targeted where those YMCA’s are located: Downers Grove, Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn, Lombard and Naperville.

The communities collected health assessments for residences, workplaces, after school programs and child care facilities. Those assessments covered the ability to purchase healthy food, access to walking and bikeways and exercise opportunities.

Staff studied the communities’ strengths and barriers to promoting health and well-being. The municipalities were then challenged to target three areas to make change.

Downers Grove decided on improvements to public transportation and sidewalks and bike paths, increasing opportunities for non-competitive athletes such as intramurals and providing a farmers stand during the week. The Indian Boundary YMCA currently organizes a farmers market every Saturday in downtown Downers Grove.

Now FORWARD wants to focus on lower socioeconomic communities and has begun work this summer in Woodridge, Aurora, Addison, Villa Park and West Chicago.

Woodridge will follow the same process as Downers Grove. Community leaders met with FORWARD Aug. 18 and officials hope to complete assessments this fall before discussing the results and determining what to address.

Those involved include: , the , , , the , the , DuPage Medical Group, Metropolitan Family Services, Kinder Care Learning Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, the American Cancer Society.

Before the work with the municipalities began, FORWARD gathered wellness information on DuPage County students.

The organization randomly selected half of DuPage schools and requested students’ school physical forms. The information is kept confidential and the organization refuses to reveal the numbers for particular schools and school districts.

FORWARD hopes to request information for 90 percent of DuPage County schools in 2011.

The organization knows which schools and which school districts are most at risk for overweight or obese and shares that information with the schools.

FORWARD will next meet with Woodridge officials on Oct. 12 to review the community assessments. FORWARD has already met with Woodridge school districts to discuss health data on students.