Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity

HPRC Quarterly Highlights: Q2 2024

This quarter, we presented about our core research project during a webinar with key partners, held coffee chats on the health equity benefits of sugary drink excise taxes and engaging community partners in health improvement planning, published a variety of new resources, and engaged with a non-profit promoting equitable green spaces in Boston. Below we highlight our accomplishments within the four aims in which our Center is focused. Learn more about our Center aims here.

Collaborate with Partners to Identify Evidence-Based Interventions

Webinar: Building Community Partnerships through MA-CHOICES: Using Cost Effectiveness to Promote Healthy Eating & Physical Activity

In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Prevention Research Centers (PRCs), the National Association of County and City Health Officials hosted a series of three webinars shining a spotlight on various PRCs developing, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based strategies to prevent and manage chronic diseases. The HPRC presented during the second webinar in June.

The HRPC collaborated with the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) to identify a playbook of strategies to improve nutrition and physical activity environments, reduce excess weight gain, and study how cost-effectiveness metrics can be used to inform decision-making, as part of our core research project.

During this webinar, speakers Angie Cradock and Molly Garrone of the HPRC as well as Mary Bovenzi and Sonia Carter of the BPHC highlighted the resources and tools developed that can be used to prioritize and plan prevention strategies with local partners. They also discussed strategies to tailor research projects to build community partnerships for future prevention activities.

Watch the Recording  |  View the Webinar Slides

Promote Healthy Weight, Nutrition, Physical Activity, & Health Equity

Coffee Chats Explore Effective Nutrition Policies and Ways to Advance Health Equity
These events were part of our monthly CHOICES Community of Practice coffee chat series, which is for any public health professional whose work focuses on advancing obesity prevention, healthy eating, and active living and want to learn more about how cost-effectiveness analysis can advance their efforts and address health equity.

The CHOICES Community of Practice has hosted five coffee chats since January, covering topics such as promoting health equity through nutrition policies (e.g., sugary drink excise taxes and added-sugar warning labels on restaurant menus), increasing community engagement in health improvement planning, and enhancing health communications. If you missed any or wish to revisit a session, access the recordings and shared resources through the links below.

Here’s our 2024 coffee chat line-up so far:

You can also explore our resource library to access to these coffee chats.

Mark your calendars for future events! Join us for our monthly coffee chat series, typically scheduled on the fourth Thursday of each month from 1:00 – 1:50pm ET.

Got ideas brewing? Please share your ideas and suggestions for future CHOICES Community of Practice coffee chat topics. Your input helps shape our upcoming discussions!

Our monthly coffee chats are tailored for public health professionals dedicated to advancing obesity prevention, promoting healthy eating, and encouraging active living. These sessions serve as valuable opportunities to learn and connect with others on ways cost-effectiveness analysis can advance your prevention efforts and promote health equity.

Offer Resources & Training Opportunities

New Resources
We are always working to share new resources, tools, and peer-reviewed publications that align with our Center’s Priority Areas. This quarter, we published and launched the following:

20 Strategy Reports

As part of the recent re-release of the CHOICES National Action Kit 2.0, we’ve now made several reports available that describe the projected national population reach, impact on health and health equity, implementation costs, and cost-effectiveness for each strategy. These reports are accessible both with the Kit itself and via the CHOICES Resource Library. 

Other Key New Resources

Build Capacity for Conducting Community-Engaged Research

Harvard Chan MS Candidate Uses Storytelling to Analyze Impact of Boston-Based Non-Profit that Promotes Equitable Access to Green Spaces

Ben Weitz and Mary Ann Nelson, the Executive Director of the Mission Hill Health Movement and longtime resident, discussing the history of Gore Street community garden.
Ben Weitz and Mary Ann Nelson, the Executive Director of the Mission Hill Health Movement and longtime resident, discussing the history of Gore Street community garden.

COGdesign is a Boston-based non-profit organization that expands equitable access to green and open spaces through community-based participatory landscape design, by providing pro bono landscape design services to under-resourced community groups in the greater Boston area. By working with community clients, volunteer designers, and project liaisons, COGdesign centers the co-creation of spaces that meet neighborhood needs.

Ben Weitz and Mary Ann Nelson discussing pest control and garden maintenance.
Ben Weitz and Mary Ann Nelson discussing pest control and garden maintenance.

Along with Staci Jasin, COGdesign’s Executive Director, HPRC faculty member Dr. Rebekka Lee is supervising a student intern, Ben Weitz, MS candidate in Environmental Health with a concentration in Environmental Justice, to apply qualitative methods to a practical, real-world evaluation through working with COGdesign. This work is supported by the Greater Boston Community Internship Fund and the HPRC community consultation service.

Below, Ben shares a bit about his experience, including a few photos from his work at the Gore Street Community Garden in Mission Hill, Boston. Mary Ann Nelson, Executive Director of the Mission Hill Health Movement and longtime resident, is also pictured in these photos, and was a member of the 2017 Leaders in Health Community Training Program cohort.

Ben Weitz sitting in Gore Street community garden located in Mission Hill.
“My internship project involves partnering with 5 project sites to tell the story of the transformation of space from community will to actualization. I started working with COGdesign on their storytelling project this spring semester as an assignment for EH 291: Community Practice in Environmental Health. To capture these narratives, I am conducting interviews to write stories, create photo essays, and assess individual and community health impacts through qualitative analysis. The photo essays are being co-created with Cristian Umana, a Harvard Graduate School of Design alumnus.”

— Ben Weitz, MS Candidate, Environmental Health with a concentration in Environmental Justice

Photo caption: Ben Weitz sitting in Gore Street community garden located in Mission Hill.

View previous quarterly news stories