HEPCOM Stories

Getting a healthy lunch at college - a HEPCOM-story from United Kingdom

In Brighton, a team at Further Education College (16-19 years) consisting of students, welfare lead, catering team, interested teacher, City council healthy catering coordinator and Jamie Oliver Foundation representative, have tested tools from HEPCOM’s homepage. University of Brighton HEPCOM Project Team guided the process as a participatory action research project.

The group had special focus on using whole school approaches, whereby the school sets out to increase knowledge and skills around healthy living but also provides a setting and environment which encourages healthy choices.  An underlying principle is the involvement of students in the decision making and co-production of knowledge and practice. The subject was how to improve a healthy lunch at college

Read about the participatory workshop.
Poster no. 1: Putting fruit in the Meal Deal.
Poster no. 2: Hot Meal Deal.

Children’s perceptions of factors related to physical activity in schools – a HEPCOM story from Finland

This is a story about a second-grade class in central Finland who participated in a pilot project about physical activity. The aim of the project was to capture a case study of the range and diversity of children’s experiences and opinions: Which factors do eight- and nine-year-old children perceive as promoting or inhibiting their physical activity during the school day? The inspiration came from a tool at the HEPCOM platform, Shape Up, where children’s participation is an essential basis in planning, for example more functional environments and play areas at school.

Groups of children were asked to photograph factors that they found promoted and inhibited physical activity during the school day, and they came up with photos of for example weather appropriate shoes without shoelaces and a parking lot for cars where children were not allowed to come.
Then, after the photographic session, the children selected the photographs they wanted to talk about and were interviewed about them. The children were asked to recall the situations where the photos had been taken, which enabled her to hear the children’s descriptions of the photos. Their discussion about the photos showed a wide range of factors that can be addressed when planning or improving the possibilities for physical activities.

Read the article about the project.

Reaching young people, parents and teachers with information - a HEPCOM story from Ireland

In Ireland, a group of researchers from National University of Ireland Galway have consulted key stakeholders (young people, parents, teachers and youth workers) to explore their perceptions of the most efficient mechanisms and tools to disseminate research findings about youth health behaviours from HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-aged Children) which is a cross-national study, gaining insight into young people's well-being, health behaviours and their social context.

The stakeholders told them:

Young people would like to have other young people disseminating the information and want to receive it with minimum text and through visual and social media channels.

Parents, teachers and youth workers agreed that HBSC produced valuable information that should be widely disseminated. Teachers and youth workers receive far more information than they have time to read. Information, therefore, should be very focussed, targeted, relevant and specific.

Read more about this inquiry.
Read about the Irish HEPCOM Seminar 2015.

Help

HEPCOM project: preventing overweight and obesity among children and young people. The HEPCOM project aims to increase the number and quality of local community and school interventions for promoting healthy eating and physical activity among children and young people throughout Europe.


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P.O. Box 20064, 3502 LB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Phone: +31 30 284 3982
E-mail: info@hepcom.eu

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