NATIONAL ACTIVITIES

National Activities

The work of the Redstone Global Center focuses on research and solutions to improve nutrition, physical activity and obesity. By engaging in strategies to make Washington, D.C. the healthiest capital in the world, reducing health disparities and inequities, the center is able to push innovation that can be replicated in other places.

Improving Health Outcomes by Building Community Resilience

The Redstone Global Center recognizes that the root causes of many chronic diseases such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes, stem from childhood and community adversity. In 2015, the center became the academic home to the Building Community Resilience Network and Collaborative. In four years, BCR has grown from a doctoral research project to an international recognized public health movement.

Now known as the Center for Community Resilience, this work provides the roadmap and the technical assistance, facilitation, analysis and policy guidance needed to help institutions, organizations and collaboratives create measurable, lasting change. Our work is a solutions-based approach to preventing and mitigating Adverse Childhood Experiences in the context of Adverse Community Environments, what we call the Pair of ACEs. Teams across the country use the Building Community Resilience process and tools to help their communities not only ‘bounce back’ in the face of adversity, but bounce forward to improve outcomes for children and families.

The STOP Obesity Alliance

A cornerstone of the Redstone Global Center’s work is to develop and promote innovative strategies that can prevent unhealthy weight gain, poor nutrition and chronic disease, and to improve care and treatment for those living with obesity. To help carry out this mission, the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent Obesity Alliance (STOP), initially created at GW in 2007, joined the Redstone Global Center in 2014.

Members of the STOP Obesity Alliance (Strategies to Overcome and Prevent Obesity) include patient advocates, providers, government, business, health insurers, and quality-of-care organizations. STOP’s goal is to drive strategies that combat obesity, ranging from tools for primary care physicians to efforts to reduce stigma and bias in workplaces, provider offices, and in the media.

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Humanitarian Crisis at the Border

(Updated June 10, 2019) In 2018, a federal policy change resulted in more than 2,300 immigrant children being forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Since the implementation of that policy and subsequent reversal, families and unaccompanied children have continued to arrive at the border. Seven migrant children have died in federal custody. Most recently, federal officials announced that unaccompanied minors in HHS custody would no longer receive legal services, recreation and educational services. Many of us are deeply concerned about the on-going and compounded trauma experienced by children as a result. As our Dr. Bill Dietz, pediatrician and Redstone Center Chair, has stated, "Failure to provide for the basic needs of children is unconscionable, a violation of the basic human rights of a child, and increases their suffering." (Full statement) As Dr. Dietz and our Dean, Dr. Lynn Goldman – also a pediatrician, remind us, the trauma experienced by these children is likely to have lifelong health impacts.