HHS is awarding $31 million in Affordable Care Act funds to help communities across the country reduce obesity, increase physical activity and improve nutrition.
The funds are part of the Communities Putting Prevention to Work program, or CPPW, a prevention and wellness initiative administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The awards will provide communities with resources to increase the availability of healthy foods and beverages; improve access to safe places for physical activity; discourage tobacco use; and encourage smoke-free environments. Of the 11 new awards, 10 are dedicated to obesity-prevention efforts and one to tobacco cessation.
“To realize our goals of improving the health of Americans and lowering our nation's healthcare costs, we must address the underlying factors that influence our families' health—factors like the foods we eat and the conditions that exist in our homes, neighborhoods and workplaces,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a written statement. “With Communities Putting Prevention to Work, we're creating evidence-based models that we can replicate on a large scale to permanently reduce the chronic diseases plaguing so many of our communities.”
Earlier this year the CPPW program distributed nearly $492 million to support statewide and community-based changes in nutrition, physical activity, tobacco control, expanded tobacco-cessation hotlines and media campaigns, according to HHS.
See who received the awards.
