ACHIEVE
Action Communities for Health, Innovation, and EnVironmental changE

Thanks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), funding is available to local and state health departments, recreation centers, and YMCAs to address chronic disease risk factors of physical inactivity, poor nutrition, and tobacco use at the policy, systems, and environmental change level.

Through the ACHIEVE initiative and its partner organizations, communities are able to apply for funds to improve physical education, increase physical activity opportunities, and implement nutrition and health policies.

ACHIEVE Winners: SPARK Is The Partner You Need To Implement Your Policy Change!

SPARK offers evidence-based Physical Education, After School, Nutrition and Wellness programs targeting pre-K through 12th grade students in and out of school, and our programs have been proven to WORK and LAST.

The SPARK programs align perfectly with the ACHIEVE Initiative and our organization can help you achieve your community health and prevention goals.

Why Should You Partner with SPARK?
  • SPARK (originally funded by the National Institutes of Health in 1989) offers proven, research-based solutions for increasing the quantity and quality of daily physical activity as well as improving nutrition.
  • SPARK elementary physical education is the ONLY nationally disseminated program that positively affects ALL of these student outcomes: Activity levels (moderate to vigorous surpasses 50% of class time), fitness, sport skills, enjoyment, and academic achievement.
  • SPARK offers coordinated packages of curriculum, equipment, and extensive follow up support that extend beyond their award-winning K-12 PE Programs, including Early Childhood, After School and Coordinated School Health Initiative (CSHI) to help align your programs in and out of the traditional school setting.
  • The SPARK staff of researchers and educators has 20 years of successful experience working at state, community, and district levels in both urban and rural areas; and with a variety of cultures and demographics (including state-wide adoption and city-wide Department of Health initiatives).
  • SPARK has extensive Awards & Honors, including being cited in the Surgeon General’s Report as a “School-based solution to our nation’s healthcare crisis” and identified as a successful model for combating childhood obesity in the report, “Fighting Obesity: What Works, What’s Promising” by the HSC Foundation.
  • SPARK is the partner you need to implement your policy change! If you pass a policy to increase MVPA time in PE to over 50%– SPARK is proven to implement this strategy. If you pass a policy for more physical education time, your teachers will need staff development in working with obese children, and SPARK is cited as a proven obesity prevention strategy. If policy is passed to mandate a curriculum, SPARK offer research and standards based curriculum that has proven to work and last.
  • 2009 ACHIEVE communities are currently using SPARK to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity in their schools!

Here's what a previous ACHIEVE winner had to say about SPARK:

“As the recipient of the ACHIEVE grant through the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD), we were charged with implementing a designated Action Guide, entitled School-Based Physical Education: Working with Schools to Increase Physical Activity Among Children and Adolescents in Physical Education Classes (Click Here for more info). Because we wanted to increase “active time” in PE classes, we chose SPARK, an evidence-based program included in the Action Guide.

Allentown’s grades K-12 PE teachers attended the SPARK workshops which surpassed their expectations. “Great, awesome, wonderful, excellent, energetic…” were some of the words teachers used to describe the training.

SPARK is a great fit for our program, and I highly recommend them!”

-Tina Amato, MS, RD,LDN, Nutrition and Physical Activity Manager    Chronic Disease Programs, Allentown Health Bureau, Allentown, PA

Next Steps:

Contact Katie Hemlin (khemlin@sparkpe.org) at SPARK. She'll ask you a few questions, learn about your current program, and listen to your vision for creating healthier learners in your community. Together, we'll create a program that will WORK and LAST.