RESOURCES: CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)
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As our public health community responds collectively to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, CLOCC will work to provide partners with timely, useful information to help leaders, organizations and families navigate uncharted waters. Suggestions for this newsletter feature can be forwarded to info@clocc.net.
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Do you have questions about COVID-19? Lurie Children's COVID-19 Call Center is now OPEN. You can call (312) 227-5300 and speak with a Lurie Children's nurse with questions related to testing criteria, symptoms, donations, or general information. The Call Center is available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. - 6 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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GO-TO SOURCES FOR CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) INFORMATION:
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FOOD ACCESS
- Healthy CPS Resources for students and families: While schools are closed, CPS will provide students with healthy meals. CPS families can pick up free food boxes that will contain three days of breakfast and lunch for every student in the household. If you need assistance, please call the CPS Command Center at 773-553-KIDS (5437) or email familyservices@cps.edu.
RESOURCES FOR EDUCATION & CHILD CARE
- The Chicago Citywide Literacy Coalition has amassed a comprehensive list of digital education resources, organized by subject and supplemented with links to digital support services. While CCLC focuses on adult education, many resources listed are applicable to families and head-of-households.
- The Healthy Schools Campaign understands that educators have a tremendous opportunity to instill healthy habits through teaching and behavior modeling. HSC has introduced a COVID-19 resource hub with specific content for parents, teachers and staff.
- Pilot Light’s Family Resources are designed for parents and children to provide a time of learning and deeper connection through the act of sharing and making food. This library of resources will continue to grow and include Family Lessons in both English and Spanish, Family Meal Videos, recipes, and more as a way to bring food education into homes.
- Health at Home Resources (Updated) from CATCH.ORG: As America and the world faces the enormous challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic, teachers are answering the call to meet the needs of their students in new and creative ways with very little time to prepare. CATCH Global Foundation assembled these lessons and resources to help teachers continue to provide health education, nutrition education and physical activity instruction to their students remotely.
- Webinar: Caring for Children While Social Distancing. The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), has developed information on hand washing from the CDC with ways to have children continue to help with making their own foods, participating in activities, and getting physical exercise all while allowing them to maintain their own space. This 30-minute webinar has now been made available to everyone in the child nutrition community.
- Common Threads is here to support educators through the use of our digital learning platform, Common Bytes, and is providing free curriculum and training access to everyone. Our students’ health, safety, and wellbeing are our top priority and we will do everything we can to work with local school districts and community partners during this time.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Chicago Community Trust COVID-19 Response Fund: In partnership with the City of Chicago and United Way of Metro Chicago, CCT has launched the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund to unite the funds raised by Chicago’s philanthropies, corporations and individuals to be disbursed to nonprofit organizations across the region
- Access Living has introduced a compendium of COVID-19 resources for the disability community, with information tailored to additional audiences including those caring for elders, the LGBTQ community, sex workers and people with high-risk comorbidities. This page will be updated routinely during the crisis.
- Childcare for Essential Workers: The State of Illinois has established a help line and text service at 312-736-7390 to connect essential workers to child options. Check the Office of Early Childhood Education for the most up to date information. Additionally, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently announced a new initiative with Sittercity to help Chicago’s most essential workforce – healthcare workers, first responders and the team who support them. Sittercity will provide three free months of the Sittercity Premium service and will connect those on the frontlines of fighting this crisis with volunteers to help care for their families during this time. Sittercity provides tools to help families build a childcare support network with detailed profiles, secure messaging, interview scheduling and background check options. Essential workers can visit sittercity.com/chicagoresponds to find reliable childcare.
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Census Day Arrives Under Cloud of COVID-19
When states and cities work to rebuild from the economic damage caused by the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, federal funding will be a foremost concern. The allocation of funding to programs that support community health and wellness, including Medicaid, is traditionally tied to the decennial U.S. Census. It is expected that in the coming months more and more American families will come to rely on the federal health and nutrition safety nets in the wake of unprecedented economic hardship. A compromised Census introduces great uncertainty to the process.
In the previous 2019 U.S. Census, nearly 10% of young children under the age of 5 years old were missed. This resulted in states losing over half a billion dollars a year in funding. Although some
political leaders have pushed for a Census delay, it remains imperative for community health leaders to encourage Census participation to ensure sufficient allocation of critical resources. In-person canvassing will be delayed due to COVID-19 concerns, placing more emphasis on promoting online options to Illinois' hard-to-count populations.
The Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics will host a
webinar on Friday, April 3 at Noon to discuss the 2020 U.S. Census, specifically as it applies to child health safety nets. Additional resources can be found at
CountAllKids.org. Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago has developed a toolkit for Community Engagement Leaders. See below for links.
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Lurie Children's Resources for Community Engagement Leaders
For the 2020 U.S. Census, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital has established an online resource center to bring awareness, educate and encourage participation from our families, employees and community. In addition to a resource page for the general public (luriechildrens.org/census), Lurie Children's has developed resources for healthcare providers and community organizers, in both English and Spanish.
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CLOCC Receives Grant to Enhance Neighborhood Walkability & Accessibility Assessment Initiative
Since 2007, the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) has worked with communities across Chicago to assess and improve infrastructure, user-friendliness, design, and safety in their neighborhood streets through the
Neighborhood Walkability & Accessibility Initiative (NWAAI). Thanks to a new grant from
Lurie Children's Healthy Communities, CLOCC will begin upgrading its walkability assessment tool to improve walking and active transportation in communities across Chicago, with special attention to historically underserved communities. This work will take place in 2020 and 2021.
CLOCC will be releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify organizations or individuals who may be able to assist with these upgrades, including digitizing the walkability tool, improving questions regarding social and environmental features, and enhancing data collection and data analysis. Please look out for the RFP in the upcoming weeks.
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USDA Extends Comment Period on School Meal
Rollback Rule to April 22
In a measure related to the coronavirus outbreak, USDA has
announced that it will extend the deadline for comment on a pair of proposed rules aimed at school and summer meals reforms from March 23 to April 22, 2020. These rule changes, as proposed, have drawn alarm from the public health community; They jeopardize the progress schools have made to provide healthier food to vulnerable children and would decrease the overall healthfulness of school meals.
“This would create a huge loophole in school nutrition guidelines, paving the way for children to choose pizza, burgers, French fries, and other foods high in calories, saturated fat or sodium in place of balanced school meals every day,” said Colin Schwartz of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
CLOCC partners are encouraged to take advantage of the extended deadline to submit a comment prior to April 22, from wherever you may be working during this time. This extension also may be useful for schools and communities impacted by the coronavirus outbreak who normally may not have time or opportunity to comment on these proposed rules, but understand better than most the critical role school nutrition plays in the overall health of a child; Please forward the comment link to others in your network.
CSPI has provided the resources below:
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If your organization is seeking to fill open positions, email info@clocc.net or submit your information directly to the clocc.net website
here.
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Chief Financial and Administrative Officer
Illinois Public Health Institute (IPHI)
Chicago, Ill.
The Chief Financial and Administrative Officer (CFAO) is a newly created leadership role for the Illinois Public Health Institute (IPHI), an $8+ million premier public health institute that mobilizes stakeholders, catalyzes partnerships, and leads action to improve public health systems to maximize health, health equity and quality of life for people and communities. IPHI advances health through three program centers: The Center for Community Capacity Development, the Center for Health and Information Technology, and the Center for Policy and Partnership Initiatives.
IPHI is in the midst of rapid growth across all of our program areas; the CFAO position is a tremendous opportunity for the right individual to help a passionate and dedicated team of about 30 to execute on our new opportunities to create systems and policies that will make a difference in Illinois’ most vulnerable communities and nationwide. IPHI conducts its work through innovative multi-sector collaborations with government agencies, community partners, advocacy organizations and state and national public health leaders. The CFAO, who reports to the CEO, will help IPHI manage and enhance our recent growth by developing IPHI’s financial management and administrative strategy and contributing to the development and attainment of our strategic goals
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CLOCC continues to expand our focus "upstream" to identify the fundamental root causes of obesity, and to broaden the scope of our obesity prevention strategies. This work coincides with heightened local and national attention to health equity and social influencers of health, such as immigration, education, poverty and racism, all of which have an impact on people's ability to eat healthy and be active where they live, work, learn, and play. If you have comments or questions about this focus, we invite you to reach out to info@clocc.net.
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CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN THE MEDIA
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FUNDING AND RECOGNITION OPPORTUNITIES
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- AARP’s Community Challenge Grants: A new round of grant funding is available for "quick-action" projects that promote livability for people of all ages. Applications are being accepted for projects to improve housing, transportation, placemaking, smart cities, civic engagement and more. The grant application deadline is May 15th. Learn more here.
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