Cold Wet BottlesVoices for Healthy Kids releases a new toolkit on sugar-sweetened beverages entitled “Don’t Sugarcoat Our Future.”  To receive access to the toolkit, click here.

This toolkit is a compilation of facts, sample materials, and guidance on how to build, engage, and mobilize a social change movement in your state or community on this critical issue.  The toolkit is wrapped together by a unique theme designed to maximize interest and action to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.  Together with a collection of parallel toolkits on other proven social change strategies to help kids live more active, healthy lives, Voices for Healthy Kids wants to help focus and energize advocates around the country.

This toolkit is for you to use and share.  Just as important, they want to hear back from you.  They consider their toolkits to be dynamic documents.  They want to update, improve, and add to them based on the insights and lessons in the field.  Please share your comments for the next version.

Voices for Healthy Kids is a collaboration between the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched in February 2013.  Together with a diverse array of partners, they are working to engage, organize and mobilize advocates to improve the health of their communities and reverse the childhood obesity epidemic.  There are now more than one-in-three children and teens in the U.S. who are overweight or obese.  Voices for Healthy Kids is focused on advocating for policy and social change at the community, state, and federal levels in order to help young people eat healthier foods and be more active.  Find out more at www.voicesforhealthykids.org.

If you want to learn more about Voices for Healthy Kids, there are many opportunities to share resources, to get involved in advocacy efforts at the state and local level as well as join us in support of reversing youth obesity through policy and advocacy efforts. For more information, please email voicesforhealthykids@heart.org.