Promoting Healthy Weights in Children:
Online Course for Service Providers



Health Nexus, in partnership with Ophea's Physical Activity Resource Centre (PARC), is starting to develop an online course for service providers about healthy weights in children. The purpose of this project is to increase the knowledge and skills of service providers in promoting healthy weights in children aged 0-12 in Ontario. This initiative is funded through the Healthy Communities Fund and the project will be completed by March 2015.



As always, we could benefit from your input!



The Project

This project will be designed to reach service providers (for example early childhood educators, teachers, recreation staff, public health, etc.) who have the opportunity to promote healthy weights in children 0-12 years of age. The training and tools will be developed in both French and English.



This project will link service providers to key information and tools related to effective approaches to healthy weights in children. The information and tools will help them create or enhance community level approaches to promoting healthy weights in children including awareness, education, environmental supports and policy. The content will include strategies suitable for different age groups (for example infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school age children). The focus is health promotion - it is not on medical care or advice for individual children who have unhealthy low or high weights.



The main activities in this project will include:

*        An interactive online training module in English and French for service providers, about promoting healthy weights in children.

*        Downloadable support tools in English and French to assist in community engagement at the local level on healthy weights in children.

*        Webinars in English and French for service providers to provide information about the online training module and support tools.



Opportunities for Input

An advisory group of topic experts and front line workers will guide the project. Service providers will also be involved through needs assessments, expert reviews of the training and materials, as well as field testing of the training and materials.


If you have any suggestions for this project, we would be happy to hear from you! For example, you may have:

*        Suggestions for advisory members or expert reviewers.

*        Suggestions for key content areas of the course.

*        Information about related research, materials or projects.

Please email any suggestions to:
Wendy McAllister, Best Start Resource Centre at Health Nexus
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