Funders

The Healthy Behaviors Initiative is funded by three organizations, the Network for a Healthy California in the California Department of Public Health, The California Endowment and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.  These organizations are highly supportive of afterschool as a vehicle for improving the health and well-being of children across the state and addressing the childhood obesity crisis.

The Network For A Healthy California
The Network for a Healthy California (Network) is a statewide social marketing program that empowers low-income Californians and their families to live better by eating healthy and being physically active every day. Its goals are to transform the norm in low-income communities and double fruit and vegetable consumption, increase daily physical activity and reduce hunger. Local assistance projects are supported by a statewide infrastructure of 11 Regional Networks that deliver targeted campaigns and programs including the Children's Power Play! Campaign, Latino Campaign, African American Campaign, Be Active! Worksite Program, Retail Program, Harvest of the Month and Physical Activity Integration. The Network targets parents and children in households with incomes at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. The Network is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program). These institutions are equal opportunity providers and employers. In California, food stamps provide assistance to low-income households, and can help buy nutritious foods for better health. For food stamp information, call 877-847-3663. For important nutrition information, visit www.cachampionsforchange.net.   

Since its establishment in 1997, the Network has provided leadership and built administrative capacity that has grown local assistance projects from two schools and two local health departments to nearly 160 public and non-profit organizations today. Its efforts seem to be working. In contrast to national trends, fruit and vegetable consumption in low-income adults is rising, and in 2007, California’s two lowest-income segments reported reaching the five-serving minimum goal for the first time ever, better than the highest income segment.

The California Endowment
The California Endowment is a private, statewide health foundation created in 1996 as a result of Blue Cross of California’s creation of WellPoint Health Networks, a for-profit corporation.  The California Endowment’s mission is to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians.  The Endowment’s program work focuses on three areas:  access to health, culturally competent health systems, and community health and the elimination of health disparities. It funds work to strengthen communities to become healthy places to live and is involved in public policy to achieve meaningful change in access to quality health care and improvements in the health status of California’s underserved communities.

David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a private family foundation created in 1964 by David Packard (1912-1996), co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard Company, and Lucile Salter Packard (1914-1987). The Foundation provides grants to nonprofit organizations in the following program areas: Conservation and Science; Population and Reproductive Health; and Children, Families and Communities. The Foundation makes national and international grants and also has a focus on the Northern California counties of San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey. In its Children, Families and Communities program, afterschool is an important component that seeks to ensure standards of excellence and support the development of sustainable public and private funding models and mechanisms. The Foundation funds intermediary organizations and model programs that are highly collaborative and serve the field at large. The Packard Foundation also often funds youth-serving organizations in five Bay Area counties through its Local Grantmaking program.