RENO – The Washoe County Health District (WCHD) recently applied for and was chosen from about 200 applicants, to receive the Action Communities for Health, Innovation and EnVironmental ChangE (ACHIEVE) designation.

Washoe County is one of 40 U.S. communities that will be given funding to create healthier policies and lifestyle changes that promote physical activity, healthy eating and restricting the use of tobacco.

Jennifer Hadayia, public health program manager for the WCHD, said the county will receive $40,000 total during the next three years to complete certain requirements.

“We’re not sure what we will do over the course of three years, but it’s going to be specifically used for a policy system or environmental changes that create for a better quality of life in our community,” Hadayia said.

There are conditions to receiving the designation and the funding. The health district must conduct community assessment that would evaluate its policies or changes it would make to encouraging better health among residents.

“Some examples other communities have done include creating more walking and biking trails,” Hadayia said. “Some encourage businesses to ban tobacco use on campus.”

Hadayia said the local hospitals are one example within Washoe County that banned tobacco use. On Jan. 1 this year, Northern Nevada Medical Center, Renown Regional Medical Center and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center put a policy into effect that prohibits smoking on hospital grounds.

After community assessment, the district will gather a leadership team of community members who hold influence over local policies, Hadayia said, which will include the state Board of Health, the Washoe County School District, the local chambers of commerce, the University of Nevada, Reno and other organizations.

“We want to get a cross-section of community-minded folks,” Hadayia said.

Also of concern with the designation is obesity. Hadayia said with childhood obesity on the rise, the community should be concerned about providing opportunities to help them develop healthy habits early in life.

In 2009, the Washoe County School District conducted a study in which they measured students’ body mass index in a random sample of elementary, middle and high school children to estimate the percentage of youth who are underweight, at a healthy weight, overweight and obese. Officials wanted to use that as baseline data to compare the results with statewide and national figures.

The study indicated 60.1 percent of students tested are at a healthy weight, but 19 percent were found overweight and 18.5 percent were considered obese. Nearly two in in every five students is overweight or obese.

“Our approach (in this case) is if we can create an environment for kids to get physically active, meet (federal) recommendations and have healthy eating habits … we’d want to reach our youth to ensure that there are opportunities for after school programs,” Hadayia said.

She said a similar campaign could be targeted for adults as well.

“It’d be about getting adults to make healthy choices by volunteers getting involved with a menu labeling project when restaurants need help as they provide food,” she said.

“These are the types of ideas and we’d be identifying types of activities,” she added.