Volusia Interested Partners Disseminating Information on Eating and Training (VIP DIET). Daytona Beach Community College (DBCC) has forged an Academic-Community Partnership with eight other institutions to address the issue of overweight and obesity among the people of Volusia County, Florida. The participating institutions are: Volusia County Health Department, Halifax Hospital, Volusia County Public School District, Daytona Beach YMCA, Daytona Beach West Rotary Club, WCEU TV Station, Bethune-Cookman College, Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Stewart Memorial United Methodist Church. The goals of the program entitled VIP DIET is to listen to the """"""""gatekeepers"""""""" of the community through several community outreach activities, including town-hall style meetings to understand the real issues that prevent the people from leading a healthy life style. The meetings will provide a forum for discussions of the various issues including what constitutes a healthy diet and the importance of physical fitness. The overweight and obesity issues of the child, adolescent and adults will be addressed with special attention to the underrepresented minority population of the county. Meetings will be held at different parts of the county and each meeting will be videotaped by the WCEU Public Broadcasting Station, and used by the program staff for both analyses of data gathered during the meetings and for dissemination to nine other counties the TV station broadcasts to at the end of each year. An annual conference of the specialists in the field along with the community leaders will be held at the end of each of the three years of the project. This conference will help to design, develop and hopefully implement new strategies from the lessons learned from the community. A six member advisory committee consisting of notable citizens of all walks of life and profession is constituted in the grant. A community representative is included as key personnel in the grant to work closely with the program staff to organize and implement the program goals. ? ? ? ?
