The Tennessee Healthy Afterschool Pledge is a program that recognizes out-of-school sites across the state who are committed to advancing the health and wellness of their students. Sites participating in this pledge commit to upholding the three Pledge Principles: prioritizing health promotion goals, providing safe and supporting environments, and promoting equity in programming.
We pledge to advance the health and wellness of our students by….
PRIORITIZING HEALTH PROMOTION GOALS from our program’s continuous improvement plan,
PROVIDING SAFE AND SUPPORTIVE ENVIRONMENTS for our students through staff development,
PROMOTING EQUITY through ensuring all students can be healthy in their learning environments.
This video provides a brief overview of the pledge process for out-of-school sites in Tennessee from start to finish to participate in this pledge program.
Enrollment windows for the Pledge Program will be open for sixty days throughout three different seasonal windows each year. During these sixty days a site needs to complete steps 1-3 of the Path to Pledge to be included in the pledge cohort.
Enrollment periods are as follows:
Below you can find more information regarding the five steps in the Path to Pledge and a registration link to enroll in this program.
Participating sites will complete an online Healthy Eating and Physical Activity assessment aligned with the National Afterschool Association's HEPA Standards. These standards are not requirements, but rather standards that acknowledge best-practices in out-of-school time. Only one assessment is turned in per site, and we encourage multiple members of leadership to assist in conducting the assessment. This online assessment has only 25 questions and takes less than ten minutes to complete.
To begin enrollment in this program and complete the “Assess” step in the Path to Pledge, click here.
Once the assessment is completed, your organization will have a baseline to identify areas of improvement. As a site, you will choose one standard you are currently not fully implementing and create an action plan to increase implementation over the following year. This planning will include action steps, delegating staff responsibilities, timeline expectations, and ways of measuring success.
To access this action plan and complete the “Plan” step in the Path to Pledge, click here.
Once your assessment and action plan have been submitted, an in-person training on pledge principles for your staff will be scheduled. This training will be conducted by your health department’s local health educator. Content covered in this training includes evidence-based information regarding health promotion, supportive environments, and practical health equity initiatives in out-of-school time. To ensure that this training and health prioritization is maintained with new staff joining pledged sites, this training has been converted to an online course that new staff can complete as part of their onboarding process.
To complete the “Train” step in the Path to Pledge, click here to locate your health department’s local health educator. For additional assistance scheduling this training and contacting your local health educator, email Adrienne.Hackney@tn.gov for technical assistance. If you are unable to schedule your local health educator for this training, email Christine.Rockwood@tn.gov for access to an online training.
To access the training course for new staff hired after your in-person training has been conducted, click here.
Each organization that partakes in the pledge will have access to an online toolkit to help sustain their prioritization of health promotion goals. This toolkit includes Healthy Afterschool Pledge marketing materials, structured health promotion activity programming, and more. All sites will consistently receive information throughout the year to attend in-person and virtual professional development events geared towards healthy out-of-school time.
There is no additional step required by sites to sign up for these promotion tools. All sites that complete the first three steps in the Path to Pledge will be included in group emails to share updates on resources, local best-practices, and more. Access to these toolkit materials is provided below in the “Pledge Standards and Toolkit” section.
After one year from the date the online assessment is completed, the pledged site will re-examine their assessment and action plan to review progress. Once changes in implementation levels have been assessed, the site will craft a new or updated action plan for the following year. Upon completion of another action plan, the organization will retain their statewide recognition of being an out-of-school site pledged to advancing the health of their students!
To complete this step and re-enroll in the pledge program, an online form will be sent to pledged sites approaching their one-year benchmark. Once an updated assessment and action plan are received from a pledged site’s leadership this cycle will repeat beginning on the promote step in the Path to Pledge.
Below you will find information regarding the eight standards of the Tennessee Healthy Afterschool Pledge and resources for increasing implementation of these standards. These standards are not requirements but rather “best practices” as identified from the National AfterSchool Association’s Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Standards.
“Participates in ongoing self-assessment, action planning, and program improvement strategies that support healthy eating and physical activity.”
Alignment to Healthy People 2030: NWS-04 “Reduce the proportion of children and adolescents with obesity”
Technical Assistance Contact: Christine Rockwood, Christine.Rockwood@tn.gov
Toolkit Resources
“Promotes healthy eating and physical activity policies, practices, and programs to children and youth, families, and people in the community.”
Alignment to Healthy People 2030: EH-D01 “Increase the proportion of schools with policies and practices that promote health and safety”
Technical Assistance Contact: Morgan Campey, Morgan.Campey@tn.gov
Toolkit Resources:
“All staff members participate in professional development on healthy eating, nutrition, and physical activity at least once per year.”
Alignment to Healthy People 2030: HC/HIT-R01 “Increase the health literacy of the population”
Technical Assistance Contact: Knoxville N.E.A.T. Program, Abigail.Ford@knoxcounty.org
Toolkit Resources:
“Does not allow marketing of products or displays of logos from companies that produce foods and beverages that are inconsistent with healthy living.”
Alignment to Healthy People 2030: TU-22 “Reduce the proportion of adolescents exposed to tobacco marketing”
Technical Assistance Contact: Brittany Nikolich, Brittany.Nikolich@tn.gov
Toolkit Resources:
“Does not use food as a reward or withhold physical activity as punishment.”
Alignment to Healthy People 2030: EMC-D07 “Increase the proportion of children and adolescents who show resilience to challenges and stress”
Technical Assistance Contact: Heather Piergies, Heather.Piergies@tn.gov
Toolkit Resources:
“Promotes and encourages healthy eating and physical activity among staff with students during activities and mealtimes.”
Alignment to Healthy People 2030: PA-06 “Increase the proportion of adolescents who do enough aerobic physical activity”
Technical Assistance Contact: Adrienne Hackney, Adrienne.Hackney@tn.gov
Toolkit Resources:
“Gives children and youth access to foods and beverages, including vending machines, food carts, and concession stands, that are consistent with healthy living.”
Alignment to Healthy People 2030: AH-R03 “Increase the proportion of eligible students in the Summer Food Service Program”
Technical Assistance Contact: No Kid Hungry TN, mspady@strength.org
Toolkit Resources:
“Develops opportunities for families and community members to advise and support healthy eating and physical activity.”
Alignment to Healthy People 2030: HC/HIT-04 “Increase the proportion of adults who talk to friends or family about their health”
Technical Assistance Contact: Taylor Rayfield, Taylor.Rayfield@tn.gov
Toolkit Resources:
In this section you can find answers to common questions regarding the Tennessee Healthy Afterschool Pledge
ANY out-of-school site serving students ranging from grades K-12 can participate in this program. This includes, but is not limited to, afterschool programs, summer learning programs, and community-based programs.
We know that out-of-school sites are instrumental in helping children grow up healthy. Therefore, we believe it is important to identify and recognize these sites across our state and invest assistance to expand their efforts. By joining this pledge, you are tapping into evidence-based health promotion resources and strategies specific to out-of-school time.
Sites that participate in this program will receive statewide recognition of their site by the Tennessee Department of Education and the Tennessee Department of Health. This information can be used in marketing enrollment to families in your community. Sites will also receive online toolkit resources to promote student health in their programming and receive priority technical assistance in implementing these initiatives from TDOE’s Extended Learning Program staff, Knox County Health Department’s nutrition staff, No Kid Hungry TN staff, and more.
All that is required of participating sites is to commit to upholding the three principles of our pledge, completing our annual online healthy eating and physical activity assessment, and completing an annual healthy eating and physical activity action plan.
Enrollment for the pledge will be open three times a year for sixty days each time. During these sixty days, sites will need to complete steps 1-3 on the Path to Pledge. This means sites will need to complete their online assessment, online action plan, and host their local health educator for the training within the sixty-day allotment.
Enrollment periods are as follows:
The out-of-school sites listed below have completed the entire Path to Pledge process and are recognized by the Tennessee Department of Education and the Tennessee Department of Health as committed to advancing their student’s health and wellbeing.
In 2023, the Office of Coordinated School Health was recognized as a Healthy People 2030 Champion! The Healthy People 2030 Champion Program recognizes public and private organizations that support the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s Healthy People 2030 initiative. The Healthy People 2030 initiative sets a variety of objectives to improve health and well-being across the nation. Our Tennessee Healthy Afterschool Program is aligned to address eight of those nationwide objectives.
