The PHA Framework

At the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), we understand that change is a part of life, and that’s why we’re always evolving to meet our goals. We learn from our successes, as well as from any obstacles we encounter – and we never stop looking for new opportunities to improve the health of our nation’s children.

Over the past seven years, we’ve focused on increasing supply as well as demand for healthier options through a growing list of partnerships. The culmination of this work has crystallized into three broad areas of greatest impact: Increasing Physical Activity, Transforming the Marketplace and Creating Healthier Places.

Active kids are healthy kids, and at PHA we recognize that all kids don’t have the same access to safe places where they can run and play, and they don’t all have equal opportunities to compete in sports and recreational programs. Our Increasing Physical Activity partners are working to expand those options so that all children and young adults, regardless of where they live or go to school, can make regular physical activity a part of their daily routine.

Because families must have healthy choices in order to make them, we’ll continue to increase supply and demand for healthier foods, as well as affordable access to those healthier options. Our Transforming the Marketplace partners include restaurants, hotels, distributors, grocery and convenience stores. These partners supply the healthy food options, and our signature campaigns such as FNV and Drink Up inspire consumers to make those choices.

Our partners in the Creating Healthier Places segment recognize the significant role the environment can play in making healthy choices, and seek to create places that are conducive to good health. We want to be sure that whether they’re at home, in early childcare or out-of-school care, away at college or even sick in the hospital, America’s kids will find the healthy choice is always the easy choice.

By focusing our efforts in these three broad areas, PHA and its partners will reach kids through almost every aspect of their lives.

This report is designed to highlight our partners’ progress and provide an update on PHA initiatives. Our role is to ensure these commitments are strong enough to create meaningful change, while practical enough for the private sector to implement.

We encourage you to review the database carefully. Our online resource is a critical component of our commitment to transparency. Anyone at any time can see exactly what our partners have committed to, as well as how they’re performing, based on third-party verification. Please spend some time with the information online to help us stay true to our promise of accountability.

Next: Methodology