NewYork-Presbyterian. The University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell.

Ambulatory Care Network Community Programs

CHALK - Choosing Healthy and Active Lifestyles for Kids

Visit chalkcenter.org for the latest updates on our events, partners and upcoming programs in Washington Heights and Inwood.

Who We Are

CHALK (Choosing Healthy & Active Lifestyles for Kids) is a collaboration between NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Ambulatory Care Network and Columbia University Medical Center's Department of Child & Adolescent Health. The goals of CHALK are to reduce over time the prevalence of childhood obesity in Northern Manhattan and to promote a culture and create an environment in which healthy lifestyles are integral to the lives of all children. Our three areas of focus are schools, our medical center and the community at large.

Our Priorities

• Teach healthy habits and skills to help families achieve a healthy weight
• Share tools with school to help them improve the health of their students and school staff
• Work with local businesses to help make healthy living the default in our community
• Support health-promoting programs to fill the gap where resources are lacking in the neighborhood
• Utilize the passion and expertise of the community to help spread our message
• Mobilize community members and local businesses to further spread our message

Our Message

¡Vive tu Vida! Life your Life! Our message was created by the community, for the community. CHALK's community task force helps to educate and mobilize other community members to live their lives with "Energy, Balance and Action."

Our Three Areas of Focus

Community

CHALK partners with community members to help recruit businesses and organizations to sign a pledge to join our campaign. These campaign members then create programs, services or distribute information to spread our message of healthy living. Our Community Task Force is central to developing and spreading a culturally-appropriate community-wide healthy lifestyle campaign. CHALK also awards mini-grants to community organizations to programs that support healthy eating and physical activity for families in Washington Heights and Inwood.

Schools

CHALK's work with schools focuses on creating a health-promoting environment in the school setting. Specifically, we focus on nutrition, physical activity and staff wellness. We work to ensure our partner schools have active School Wellness Councils that set the health priorities.

Medical Center

CHALK ties our obesity prevention initiatives to those at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Some key initiatives were securing a hospital farmer's market, launching a stair promotion campaign, developing healthy food guidelines for meetings and working with medical providers to educate families on our healthy habits.