History

In the belief that Healthy Kids Make Better Students and Better Students Make Healthy Communities, the Foundation has been reaching out to remove barriers to learning by improving health since 1995, when it launched a tobacco awareness program involving lung lectures and smoking cessation classes conducted throughout Orange County Public Schools and parts of the Seminole County School system.

Not long after, Winter Park Consortium principals united to look for an edge when it came to academic success. They wanted to remove barriers to learning. One significant barrier identified was the health and fitness of students. The principals knew WPHF already had an interest in children and youth, as well as a history of providing health promotion in schools, so the groups came together and the Coordinated Youth Initiative (CYI)—which today includes the CHILL mental health counseling program; Healthy School Teams; the School Nursing Initiative and Student Health Centers (with Nurse Practitioners) —was born. 

Not every school outside of the Winter Park Consortium may be able to afford to implement all of the CYI programs, but any school can look for ways to help students become healthier, and therefore better students.

The approach adopted for the Winter Park Consortium schools is based on the Coordinated School Health Model developed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

This model recognizes that the health of our youth is a community-wide concern requiring the involvement of parents, families, teachers, counselors, school administrators, health care professionals and other related agencies.  Schools can’t do this alone.

The model includes eight components: health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, counseling and psychological services, a healthy school environment, health promotion for staff, and family and community involvement.

In 2002, Healthy School Teams were established at each Winter Park Consortium school, including representatives from each of these components. This often includes school administrators, nurses, counselors, physical education and health teachers, cafeteria managers, parents and members of the community. Together they come up with projects to improve the health of their school and its students.  Because of the success of the HST model within the Consortium, the Orange County School Board adopted a School Wellness Policy that requires each school within the Orange County Public Schools district to create a Healthy School Team.

Winter Park Consortium HST leaders have compiled a list of start-up suggestions and successful project ideas for new Healthy School Teams. Many HST activities are focused on increasing students’ and families’ awareness of how to be healthy—ie good nutrition, physical activity, behavioral and physical health, and how the physical and mental health of children impact their ability succeed in school.

Welcome to Healthy Kids Today!

cartwheelHealthy Kids Today is a user-friendly website developed and supported by the Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF) as a community service for local families. It is designed to provide:

This website is an extension of the work done through CYI, supported by the WPHF in collaboration with the Winter Park Consortium of Schools. (The Consortium includes Winter Park High School and its elementary and middle feeder schools.)

We hope that the website will serve as a valuable resource—available 24 hours a day, seven days a week—for anyone concerned about the health of kids and their ability to learn.

Please visit often, and feel free to share your thoughts with us. We welcome your ideas on ways to improve the HealthyKidsToday website. Send them to Lynn Carolan, lcarolan@wphf.org.