Parent Action for Healthy Kids© is designed to help connect parents, communities and schools to improve the health and well-being of children and youth. There are many quality resources and programs to assist parents in advocating for improved health initiatives in our communities and schools. Too often these high quality products never reach the most important person in a child’s life – the parent.

The aim of Parent Action for Healthy Kids© is to provide parents with the best resources available so they can advocate for improved health initiatives in communities and schools.

As parents we are aware and concerned about the health problems of children and youth and realize that if our children are not healthy they will not thrive academically. Our concerns are valid particularly when you consider that:

• Every day nearly 3,000 young people take up smoking (Pierce et al., 1989).
• Daily participation in high school physical education classes dropped from 42% in 1991 to 29% in 199 (Kann et al., 2000).
• Almost three-fourths of young people do not eat the recommended number of servings of fruits and vegetables (Kann et al., 2000).
• Every year almost one million adolescents become pregnant and about three million become infected with a sexually transmitted disease (The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1994).
• Suicide claims more adolescents than any disease or natural cause. In 1997, more adolescents die from suicide than from AIDS, cancer, heart disease, birth defects, or lung disease (U.S. Public Health Service, 1999).

Source: CDC Healthy Youth, Stories From the Field, 2003

From the time I took my daughters to kindergarten round-up more than 20 years ago, I have worked to insure that the health and well-being of all children remain a priority in our homes, schools and communities. We get just one chance to raise our kids, so let’s roll up our sleeves and work collaboratively with schools and community to insure that our children are healthy and ready to learn. I hope you will find this web site valuable in your efforts. Please share with me your comments as well as any resources that you have found helpful.

Sincerely,

Barbara Flis, Founder

Parent Action for Healthy Kids©