Taking Research Findings to the Community

CHLN members aim to bring value to the community by disseminating research to community members, practitioners, and policy makers. These efforts help to inform policy and practice both locally and nationally, supporting broader impacts beyond the research studies themselves. Below are a few examples of impactful dissemination and community outreach efforts led by CHLN members in 2024:

Supporting Federally Qualified Health Centers to address social risk factors in obesity treatment. CHLN Medical Director Dr. Helena Laroche has been engaging with community health providers to support evidence-based practices for childhood obesity treatment. This included a presentation on “Social Risk Factors in Obesity Treatment” delivered at Swope Health Services, the largest network of Federally Qualified Health Centers in the Kansas City area.

Health benefits of nature and cancer-related outcomes. CHLN member Dr. Gina Besenyi of Kansas State University spoke with cancer survivors and advocates on the health benefits of nature and cancer-related outcomes at the Johnson Cancer Research Center Power Luncheon. Her team developed a community handout on this topic by synthesizing existing research and have a new project that is aiming to disseminate this information more widely.

Safe physical activity for community members with congenital heart diseases. CHLN member Dr. David White, a Clinical Exercise Physiologist with the Heart Center at Children’s Mercy, takes his work into the community to help community members with congenital heart diseases address safety concerns with physical activity. This included a presentation on "How Much Physical Activity is Safe for Me: A Prescription for Life" at the Heart to Heart Regional Conference that brings together community members with congenital heart disease, caregivers, and healthcare providers.

Summertime and the 24-Hour Day: Get Teens Moving! CHLN member Dr. Chelsea Kracht from KUMC wrote a brief for parents and exercise practitioners based on her expertise in 24-hour movement behaviors, which was published through the American College of Sports Medicine’s Hot Topics Bulletin. The brief focused on the importance of routines for promoting adequate amounts of physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep during the summer months, a time when youth are particularly susceptible to unhealthy lifestyles due to less structured days.

Evidence-based practices and research in individuals with Down syndrome. CHLN member Dr. Ptomey, Director of the Brain Health in Down Syndrome Program at KUMC, engages with community members regularly to share current research and evidence-based practices related to Down syndrome. This included talks with the National Down Syndrome Society Adult Summit, Down Syndrome Innovations, and GiGi’s Playhouse, all of which are forums for community members with Down syndrome and their families.

Autism Spectrum Disorder: Strategies and best practices for families and early childhood educators. CHLN member Dr. Lisa Mische Lawson, who works in Occupational Therapy at KUMC, uses her expertise to support families and early childhood educators in community settings. This included leading presentations on “Routines in Early Childhood Settings” at a meeting of early childhood educators and on “Fostering Social-Emotional Development in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder” through the Kansas Family Support Center.

The 2024 Physical Activity Report Card for Children and Youth. The Report Card is an ongoing national effort led by CHLN’s Associate Director, Dr. Jordan Carlson. Each iteration is developed by a committee of experts from across the U.S., which includes CHLN member Dr. Bethany Forseth. The 2024 Report Card was widely disseminated through webinars, press releases, media stories, and health societies. More information about this project can be found earlier in the CHLN Annual Report.

2024 was a productive year for the Kansas City Healthy Lifestyles Collaborative (formerly Weighing In) program in achieving our strategic goals. Our mission is to align community programs to promote healthy lifestyles through collaborative community-based approaches. This positive impact in our community is perfectly envisioned in our ongoing initiatives, including the Kansas City Physical Activity Plan  and the CDC project Communities Leading Change. Our team includes Research Associates Katy Eighmy, Natalie Updyke, MPH, Kelly Clay, MPH, and Director Robin Shook, PhD. We have $3.98 million in active funding across five projects (97% from external sources).  

The Kansas City Physical Activity Plan  remains our largest initiative and continues to grow in reach and impact. The Kansas City Physical Activity Plan is a comprehensive, multi-sector collaboration working to create safe and equitable opportunities to live an active lifestyle in our region. We have ten active sectors (Early Childhood, Schools, Healthcare, Faith-Based settings, Parks and Recreation, Infrastructure, Sport, Marketing and Communications, Public Health and Business), with each sector led by a community partner. More information, including all meeting notes in the form of newsletters distributed to our community partners, can be found at kcphysicalactivityplan.org.

The Kansas City Physical Activity Plan makes implementation grants available and in 2024 we distributed $33,000 to our community partners. These funds allow community organizations to support active living through Kansas City Physical Activity Plan strategy and tactic implementation. A sample of the funded projects includes: a regional early childhood center training workshop featuring Dr. Dianne Craft, expert in physical activity promotion; support for the ‘Safety Around Water’ curriculum for all second graders at Stony Point North and South school (now under consideration for expansion to the entire Kansas City, KS school district); and funding research that demonstrated walking and biking rates doubled after bike and pedestrian amenities were added to Cleaver Blvd in Kansas City, MO.

The largest implementation project is a partnership with Aspen Institute for Kansas City to be the 14^th Project Play city in the United States. In September 2024 we released State of Play Kansas City, a report detailing data collected over the previous 12 months through a 4,186-person youth survey, focus group discussions with young people, coaches, sports administrators and parents, existing reports and public data, and discussions with community members at the State of Play Kansas City Summit held in April 2024. The 40-page report includes extensive data describing the current state of youth physical activity in Kansas City along with a roadmap for creating safe and equitable opportunities to be active. We believe that this project will serve as a springboard for significant financial and programmatic investment in this area, and the Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles and Nutrition has an opportunity to lead many of these efforts. The full report can be found at projectplay.org/communities/kansas-city.

Alongside partners at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, we completed year 1 of the 5-year $3.6 million Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project titled ‘Communities Leading Change: Advancing Capacity to Create Physical Activity and Nutrition Environmental and Systems Change.’ The purpose of the project is to: 1: Improve access and amenities in and around parks and school grounds in eastern KCMO, 2: Implement policy that result in community design changes to increase active transportation opportunities in eastern KCMO neighborhoods, 3: Improve the target area food system to increase fruit and vegetable access, 4: Increase fruit and vegetable consumption among families, 5: Support implementation to enhance and expand family healthy weight plan delivery to Swope Health clinics, and 6: Create community and clinical linkages to family healthy weight programming.

Throughout all of these activities, the Kansas City Healthy Lifestyles Collaborative continued to carry out our ‘normal’ work of improving the capacity of our partners to support healthy lifestyles through convening, communication, and leadership. This includes hosting working groups and quarterly meetings (160 total meetings hosted involving 1350 individuals), communicating healthy lifestyle research and regional projects through 50 newsletters sent to our over >1000 partners, holding leadership positions on regional committees/organizations (Missouri Council on Activity and Nutrition, Missouri Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, BikeWalkKC, National Physical Activity Plan Steering Committee, etc.) and disseminating our work at a variety local, national, and international meetings (E.g., American Public Health Association Annual Meeting) and in peer-reviewed publications (E.g., PLoS One).