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Evaluation Plan for Healthy Weights

October, 2007

The Heart and Stroke Foundation, Ontario Chapter, awarded The Alder Group a contract to develop an evaluation plan for the Healthy Weights Investment in Mission Program, a multi-strategy initiative promoting healthy weights and physical activity.

Reknown researchers Dr. Brian Rush and Dr. Rouleen Wignall join The Alder Group as team members for this project.

As healthy weights and active living have emerged as key health promotion priorities in many provices and countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified being overweight or obese due to poor nutrition choices and physical inactivity as the greatest risk factors for chronic disease in the 21st century.

The need for preventive measures is clear. The Government of Ontario has responded to growing concerns over the health impacts of obesity and physical inactivity. In 2004, Healthy Weights-Healthy Lives, the annual report of the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH), focused on the growing incidence of unhealthy weights in the province. This macro-level analysis of the problem, notes the environmental aspects of communities, workplaces, schools and homes that foster obesity. Emphasizing the need for a comprehensive, intersectoral approach, the CMOH called upon "all levels of government, the health sector, the food industries, work places, schools, families and individuals to
become part of a comprehensive province-wide effort to change all the factors that contribute to unhealthy weight. We must act now to create communities that promote
healthy eating and regular physical activity.”.

This project involves The Alder Group forming a project reference committee, carrying out an evaluation assessment of the program, developing a program logic model through the setting of objectives and validation via a stakeholder workshop, and the development of an evaluation framework, plan, methodology, as well as a set of tools.