Tune in to TPT’s MN Channel on Sunday at 7:30 for the latest program from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation: “Growing Up Healthy: Kids and Communities — Addressing Social, Economic and Environmental Influences on Health.”
The half-hour program focuses on improving young children’s health through high quality early care and learning, safe and healthy housing, a healthy physical environment, and connections with caring adults. It features the work of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota grantees, including:
- The National Center for Healthy Housing, documenting the positive health impacts of a green renovation of a low-income apartment complex in Worthington, Minn.
- East Side Neighborhood Development Company in St. Paul, creating healthier home and child care environments on the city’s East Side.
- The University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, reducing women and children’s exposures to pesticides in the Red River Valley and increasing residents’ access to locally grown produce.
- Rice County Growing Up Healthy, working to connect residents of Faribault and Northfield to programs, services and resources to help them be healthier.
- University of Minnesota Children, Youth and Family Consortium, working to ensure that Minneapolis families with young children have healthy home environments.
Free DVDs of the program are available from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
Also available are Somali, Spanish and Hmong discussion guides for an earlier program, “Shared Values: Health and Community — Shaping Minnesota’s Future with New Americans.” The program explores how individuals and communities become more interconnected and healthier when there are strong social support networks and opportunities to work together.
