In 2019, Go NAPSACC will be in 20 states working to improve the health of young children. Developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Go NAPSACC is an online tool that helps child care programs create environments for healthy eating and physical activity in children. Alabama, Illinois, and Indiana recently joined this initiative, while Connecticut, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, and Texas have committed to join in 2019. States that join Go NAPSACC receive unlimited access to the program's online tools. To date, 1,500 child care programs serving over 73,000 children have used the Go NAPSACC program.
"NAPSACC has helped raise the level of care for our nation's children for over a decade," stated Falon Tilley, the program manager for Go NAPSACC. "We are excited to continue to build our capacity to offer our online Go NAPSACC program to additional states."
Go NAPSACC is the evidence-based gold standard in helping child care providers adopt best practices that promote healthy eating and physical activity. While most Go NAPSACC self-assessments are available to all public health and child care professionals on the website, states are required to enroll with UNC-Chapel Hill to access the complete online program.
To accommodate this rapid growth and expansion, in January 2019, Go NAPSACC launched a redesigned website with improved capacity and functionality. Based upon feedback gathered from users over the past four years, the new website integrates improved visual elements and a new dashboard that facilitates navigation of the five-step change process to adopt healthier practices.
About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation's first public university, is a global higher education leader known for innovative teaching, research and public service. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. Now in its third century, the University offers 74 bachelor's, 104 master's, 65 doctorate and seven professional degree programs through 14 schools including the College of Arts & Sciences. Every day, faculty, staff and students shape their teaching, research and public service to meet North Carolina's most pressing needs in every region and all 100 counties. Carolina's nearly 330,000 alumni live in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, US Territories and 162 countries. Almost 178,000 live in North Carolina.
About Go NAPSACC
Gonapsacc.org is an easy-to-use web-based toolkit for early care and education programs interested in building healthy eating and physical activity habits in children. Go NAPSACC is based on a set of best practices that stem from the latest research and guidelines in the field. Programs use Go NAPSACC to improve their practices, policies, and environments and meet these best practices. Go NAPSACC was developed by the Children's Healthy Weight Research Group, which is part of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at UNC.
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