Enlisting and Providing Support

The resources and information I am seeking are questions related about childhood obesity. Are you implementing ways to reduce childhood obesity in the classroom or in the weekly lesson plan? Do you have accurate websites that I can review? What strategies would you use to help families understand that childhood obesity is a health problem? Do you know any city or countries that are implementing a plan about childhood obesity in school? The resources I have fond helpful and insightful about my advocacy plan are the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The reason I believe these two resources are helpful for my advocacy plan is because these organizations believe in making a difference in early childhood education. The Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) is an organization that is a nationally recognized childhood obesity prevention program. The mission of this program is to confront the childhood obesity epidemic by promoting healthy and active lifestyles for children throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. Since 2002 the consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children has built a vital, broad-based of thousands of participants and organizations. They have over 3,000 participants and they are representing over 1,200 organizations. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a part of the Smart School Snack a Comprehensive Preschool Education program. The Smart School Snack was design to inform early childhood teachers, children, and families about the foundation of healthy eating. The Smart School Snack learning environment includes establishing healthy independent eating habits, hand washing, appropriate food portion, social eating skills, self-monitoring and self-skill. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) also follows the NAEYC Chicago -Nutritional Lesson Plan which is the menu for the early childhood education. The menu includes breakfast, lunch, and snack. Each meal is measure according to the child age.

Personal Advocacy Journey

The quote that I find inspirational reading the role that advocacy can be in the lives of young children and their family is “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.” By Williams Faulkner, I find this inspirational in regards to family members. that inspires an excites me most about my advocacy plan and being an advocate is that the families from Onward House will learn new knowledge and learn new information about childhood obesity. Knowing the struggle of childhood obesity I felt that it was a great reason to choose this topic because I think this is an important topic for families, staff, and the community to learn about. What excites me about being an advocate is that I know I can make a difference in family's lives and with my effort we can work together and try to love a healthier life. Sometimes families just need encouragement and information from someone else that cares about their well-being in order to make changes. The challenges and anxieties I feel related to engaging in the advocacy effort I have targeted is that I am aware that my topic might be strong for many families. I feel I need to be sensitive on how I persuaded my audience because I don't want them to feel I am attacking them or feel they are doing something wrong. I would work hard to convince the audience to give though and to consider my advocacy effort. I would provide evidence about my topic and I will also have all my research available and explain why my advocacy plan is important to live a healthier life. I believe that most effective part in helping me overcome any challenged emotions I may be feeling with regard to presenting and implementing my advocacy action plan is by being able to communicate and have the ability to express myself clearly in both oral and writing form. These two skills are vital to convince my audience that my topic is important and it is important to learn about the effects of childhood obesity. I think I can encourage others in their advocacy effort, by reminding them to keep in mind that it is important to provide updated research and evidence about the topic. I also think it is important to ask questions about the topic to the audience because it is important for families to provide feedback. I think it is vital to know that the audience has and understanding about the topic. I can also encourage others in their advocacy to gather information and assemble it into a format that will inform the reader with evidence based materials established through numerous studies. Others can encourage me by providing constructive criticism because I think this would help me prepare myself for the real world.