Steps to a HealthierUS logo Steps to a Healthier Pinellas


2004

The Steps to a HealthierUS 5-year cooperative agreement program funds States, cities, and tribal entities to implement chronic disease prevention efforts focused on reducing the burden of diabetes, overweight, obesity, and asthma and addressing three related risk factors: physical inactivity, poor nutrition, and tobacco use.

For FY 2003, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allocated $13.6 million to fund 24 communities, including Pinellas County, Florida; in FY 2004, HHS allocated $35.8 million to increase funding to the existing 24 communities and to fund an additional 16, for a total of 40 communities.

Project Area

  • Four contiguous cities in Pinellas County, Florida: St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park, Gulfport, and Kenneth City (total population 310,817). Area contains 56 schools (57,900 students).

Target Population
  • The entire population residing in the intervention area; specific activities target minority and school populations.

Steps Activities

Media

  • Expand the existing Steps Web site by increasing public awareness, including additional health-based data and informative material.
  • Strengthen existing partnerships with local media in a joint effort to ultimately change target population's behavior.
  • Continue a comprehensive, 5-year, multi-component, multimedia marketing campaign to promote key health messages related to Steps behaviors and conditions. 

Policy

  • Continue efforts to get Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) to establish a local policy to calculate body mass index for clients as a standard component of assessing vital signs.
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    School

  • Expand the successful Salad Bar project to increase the variety and consumption of fruits and vegetables by increasing salad bars and serving-line options in Steps schools.
  • Incorporate similar peer influence and awareness techniques for nutrition and physical activity into the existing tobacco prevention program, Students Working Against Tobacco.
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    Community

  • Continue nutrition education, exercise, smoking cessation, weight management, and diabetes self-management classes at community sites, including neighborhood centers, churches, worksites, FQHCs, after-school programs, and satellite clinics. Special strategies include minigrants to faith-based groups for health ministries.
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    Workplace

  • Continue to promote and expand employee physical activity programs among partner agencies, including walking programs with pedometers, stairwell point-of-decision prompts, and staff training on healthy behaviors.
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    Health Care

  • Continue to offer a variety of educational programs through grand rounds, seminars, and resident lectures on standard of care guidelines and availability of resources on where to refer smokers and patients with asthma, obesity, and diabetes. Strengthen partnership with 2-1-1 Tampa Bay Cares, Inc., a community information and referral service.
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    Evaluation

    HHS will provide training and technical assistance to help each Steps community develop measurable program objectives and specific indicators of progress and use relevant data to support ongoing program improvement. HHS will also conduct a national evaluation of the entire program. Existing data sources, such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, are used to identify and measure program outcomes and assess progress toward program goals. In addition, media partners have offered to assist in the evaluation of the media campaign.

    Community Partners

    Pinellas County Health Department; Closing the Gap; Board of County Commissioners; Healthy Start Coalition; Mayors of St. Petersburg, Pinellas Park, Gulfport, and Kenneth City; African American Coalition; Environmental Health Coalition; Tobacco-Free Coalition; Pediatric Asthma Resource Action Team; American Lung Association; Pinellas County Schools; Community Health Centers, Inc. (Federally Qualified Health Centers); All Children's Hospital, Inc.; 2-1-1 Tampa Bay Cares, Inc.; Bayfront Medical Center, Inc.; Diabetes Intervention Prevention Program; YMCA; Partnership for a Healthier Pinellas; Parish Nurses; Pinellas African Americans Targeted Reduction in Infant Mortality using a Community Intervention Approach. 

    Pinellas County Steps Contact

    Richard Curtin
    Steps Coordinator
    Pinellas County Health Department
    PO Box 13549,
    St. Petersburg, FL 33733
    (727) 820-4113
    (727) 820-4163 fax
    Richard_Curtin@doh.state.fl.us

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