How will the Health and Well-Being of a Community Improve with the Creation of a Community Project?
Coursework 2 (Assessment weighting 70%)
Each student must submit a 2,000 word written assignment that serves as a rationale for the project created in the formative assignment.
“How will the health and well-being of a community improve with the creation of a community project?”
Assignment guidance
Each student will write an individual assignment that will give the rationale for the project created in the formative assignment.
1. You will need a clear introduction to outline your project and to set the scene for your essay. You will need to address key terms such as community, health and well-being.
2. All the main points need to be brought together in a conclusion. No new information should be included in the conclusion.
3. As you are giving a rationale, you need to discuss:
a. Why the project is needed (Assessment of need)
b. What planning went into the project? What are the aims and objectives? What are the outcomes and outputs?
c. Who was involved? Were members of the community involved in the planning?
d. How was it implemented?
e. A clear method of how the project could be evaluated. Have the aims and objectives been achieved? Use of questionnaire, interviews, focus group, observation etc.
4. You also need to think about steps that need to be taken even before the project is assessed. Do you think that building relationships with the community could help? If so, why would this be important?
5. Academic work is not descriptive. It has an element of critical analysis. It is important that you do not just give a descriptive list of what was done and when. The rationale and process needs to be underpinned by theories, concepts and other research relating to the issues. In other words, whatever you have planned or assessed for the project, a theorist will have a reason why that aspect is necessary or someone somewhere has created a community project similar or not to your project and you can discuss the similarities or differences.
6. All work must be referenced using the Harvard system and all references must be included in the reference section at the end of your work.
How will the health and well-being of a community improve with the creation of a community project?”
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Introduction
Healthy eating is crucial to maintaining health and their well-being. In the case of children and the young, healthy eating influences their growth, development and future to ensure that the children and young people eat healthy foods and diets, it is necessary to sensitize them of their eating behaviours and patterns (Mikkelsen, et al., 2014, p. 16). The more they are informed they more it is likely that they will live healthy lifestyles even as they get older. The primary caregivers of children and young people also influence the eating their eating habits, while schools and policy makers also influence eating habits. This project is a key to support Every Child Matters and the outcome of Be Healthy for children and young people.
Rationale
There is growing concern that efforts towards improving eating healthy foods of children and adolescents have not had the desired results. There is a need to identify the benefits of community-based food programs. There are children and young people who do not have access to affordable and accessible healthy food options. This is especially among the low-income groups, where the choice of food available is neither nutritious nor healthy. At other times, there are, ‘food desert’ areas that lack nutritionally adequate diets and this affects the healthy well-being of the residents. Schools have a role to play to improve the health of children and young people regardless of their backgrounds, and this is particularly beneficial for those who have low participation in programmes promoting healthy lifestyles.
Community-based initiatives improve the health of children and young people in various ways through increasing access to healthier food options (Jones, et al., 2014, p. 5). The people also get more knowledgeable and they are more likely to take an active role in choosing healthy lifestyles. The children and young people also get connected through networks that offer valuable information on healthy food choices and nutrition and the role of physical activities in improving health outcomes. Parents are also likely to be more engaged in supporting healthy eating as they understand that nutrition deficiency has a long-term impact on the health of their children. Information extends to cooking, maintaining the safety of food preparation as well as their food choices. As children and the young learn skills parents and teachers are likely to find it easier to engage them in healthy activities.
Besides low nutrition and lack of information on healthy eating, there are challenges to marinating healthy lifestyles when the targeted individuals live in areas where the most common foods are the unhealthy ones. The risk of obesity affects the wellbeing of children and young people, and this is especially for those used to fast foods that are cheap but low in nutritional value (Mikkelsen, et al., 2014, p.16). Improving healthy eating habits can influence the health of family members and the community as more people are engaged to transforming the health of the community members. Engaging the families and children in the proposed programme provides an opportunity for them learn. This is crucial to imparting positive changes in the community where the children and young people have confidence about what they have learned
Project planning aims and objectives
At the school level, it is possible to facilitate collaboration and partnerships with like-minded groups through a network. Coordinating activities in schools related to healthy eating habits and lifestyles requires that the schools implement relevant programs. Being involved in such schemes is necessary as participants understand the best strategies to improve fitness and nutrition. Improving the physical well being of children and young people relies on recommended practice and actions, as there are tools to assess physical activities and nutrition diets (Jones, et al., 2014, p. 4). There have been previous attempts towards encouraging schools to participate in healthy eating action plans at the local level, where there are attempts to attain the target level. This extends to the provision of grants to support food and fitness programmes. There is a need for evidence-based research to support the rationale for healthy eating programs.
The aims and objectives of the programme seek to improve healthy eating habits among children and the young people. It is also expected that they will be more active in physical activities as this supports healthy lifestyles. Since schools have the opportunity to impart knowledge, they will promote healthy living habits targeted at the pupils (Veugelers & Schwartz, 2010, S 6). Nonetheless, there will be training focusing on imparting knowledge about healthy eating habits, while caution will be exercised for those with food-related conditions and allergies. The schools supported health-related exercise to impact the health of children and young people. This will be supported through increasing participation in sporting activities.
To meet the needs of children proper planning is required and this extends to gathering information on eating habits of the children in schools. Since it was more difficult to document the household diets of the children and young people, planning policies mainly focused on schools to support healthy eating. It is expected that that the programme will have long-term positive effects on health outcomes as they will consume safe and healthy food than before the launch of the project. The health outcomes of low nutritional and unhealthy foods are that there is higher risk of obesity and chronic diseases including diabetes, cancer and heart disease. To avoid overburdening the health system, the interventions are necessary.
Community involvement in planning
In planning the implementation of the proposed plan to improve healthy eating habits for children and young adults, the input of schools and parents was taken into account. Providing accurate and reliable information to schools facilitated training and support for the programme. This entails their understanding of nutritional status and healthy eating, where the school heads were evaluate together with teachers that the meals were beneficial (Fung et al., 2012, p. 2). Additionally, integrating the schools and staff made it easier to create food policies. The schools in turn, look into ways to focus more on involving the pupils and parents, while also with the catering staff in evaluating that the quality of meals is...