What We Do

Partners in Prevention

In school settings, NHPS works with teams of administrators, teachers, counselors, school nurses, parents and the students themselves to provide training and educational tools, and to support policy and environmental changes that encourage healthier eating and more physical activity on school campuses.

In the child care setting, NHPS provides training and educational tools to help child care providers promote and model healthy behaviors for young children. In addition, NHPS advocates for adoption of 5-2-1-Almost None principles as part of state quality rating and improvement systems for child care providers.

In the primary care setting, Nemours convenes pediatric primary care providers from across the state to participate in study groups focused on improving office-based weight management and health promotion skills. Practitioners learn about new interventions and receive tools for use in the office setting as well as take-home materials for families.

In the community, NHPS works with youth-serving organizations, such as the YMCA of Delaware, the Boys and Girls Clubs, and the 4-H Club, to promote 5-2-1-Almost None and to develop a corps of messengers who will model the behavior and help spread the message.A concentrated effort to promote child health in all settings is underway in Sussex County, Delaware. More than 100 organizations make up the Sussex Child Health Promotion Coalition including a broad range of business, government, nonprofit, educational and faith-based participants. A concentrated effort to involve grassroots leadership in child health promotion is underway in the city of Wilmington.

The Campaign to Make Delaware’s Kids the Healthiest in the Nation

NHPS and its collaborators envision a healthier state where children and their families are motivated and able to make healthy choices. To spur both motivation and change, Nemours has launched a campaign designed to shed light on the barriers to making healthy choices as well as the means to start working on solutions.

To achieve the greatest impact, NHPS considers the many different places where children and families spend their time: schools, child care facilities, health care settings, community centers and neighborhoods. The goal is to help children make healthy food and lifestyle choices and to stay physically active by reinforcing consistent, healthy messages in each setting.