Community Assessment
Grant Awards

The Boston Collaborative for Food and Fitness (BCFF) has awarded grants to six Youth-Serving Organizations to work with the BCFF on community assessments and the development of an action plan for addressing issues of food and fitness in the neighborhoods of Boston.

The organizations selected are

• Dotwell, in the Fields Corner neighborhood of Dorchester,
• FAMILY, Inc., in the Codman Square neighborhood of Dorchester,
• the East Boston YMCA and Neighborhood of Affordable Housing in East Boston,
• Hyde Square Task Force in Jamaica Plain,
• Sociedad Latina in Roxbury, and
• Youth and Family Enrichment Services in Mattapan.

The Boston Collaborative for Food & Fitness is one of 9 initiatives funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation's (WKKF) national Food and Fitness Initiative. The initiative is a 10-year effort to create vibrant communities that support access to locally grown, healthy, affordable food, and safe and convenient places for physical activity and play. (For more information, go to http://www.wkkf.org/default.aspx?tabid=75&CID=383&NID=61&LanguageID=0).

 The BCFF is currently in a two-year planning phase, during which assessments of Boston's food and fitness environments will be conducted at both a citywide and a neighborhood level. The latter focuses on six neighborhoods: East Boston, two neighborhoods in Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan and Roxbury.

 Each grantee will be expected to utilize youth/adult collaborations in realizing these outcomes:

• Complete an assessment of community strengths, needs and desires for access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity.
• Build community connections and serve as a catalyst for community-wide organizing around the issues of food and fitness.
• Engage communities (community partners) in the assessment process and in the work of the Collaborative.
• Work with the Collaborative to use the assessment findings to develop an action plan for improving access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity in the neighborhoods of Boston

The community assessments will be undertaken primarily during the summer of 2008, with groups reporting back to their communities in the fall and priorities being identified, and an implementation plan being developed over the winter of 2008-09.