A Project with Houston Schools and DairyMAX 

There are few, if any, more urgent health risks facing our community than the current epidemic of overweight and obesity in our society, especially for our K-12 school children. This issue impacts every state, especially Texas. According to a study by the Texas Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one-third of our state’s children are either obese or overweight. With the aim of supercharging efforts to enhance wellness within the Houston Independent School District (HISD), the Houston community came together in an innovative way Feb 20 -21, 2009. With their Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools Summit, they engaged a broad range of stakeholders in an historic gathering designed to chart a new course leading toward a healthier generation of Houstonians. Designed as a national model, this initiative was sponsored in part by the National Dairy Council and Dairy MAX in full partnership with HISD and partners such as the Houston Texans, STEPS Healthier Houston-Harris County Consortium, and Houston Can Do. Dr. David Cooperrider and Dr. Lindsey Godwin helped facilitate the event using an Appreciative Inquiry model that allowed representatives of the ‘whole system’ to collaborate in an innovative, interactive way to develop solutions to this issue by building on the existing strengths of HISD.

This is not your typical planning meeting!

• The WHOLE SYSTEM participates--a cross-section of as many internal and external stakeholders as possible--people and groups that care about and have a stake in the future of our school system. This means more diversity and less hierarchy than is usual in a working meeting, and a chance for each person and stakeholder group to be heard and to learn other ways of looking at the task at hand.
• TASK FOCUSED--a summit is task focused, not simply an educational event or a conference. We are here to accomplish the task of building our vision and plan of action for becoming a high empowerment school district in ways that will accomplish our summit task--to create healthy kids and healthy schools across Houston by leveraging all the strengths and talents that exist within our community.

• Future scenarios are put into HISTORICAL and GLOBAL perspective. That means thinking globally together before acting locally. This enhances shared understanding and great commitment to act. It also increases the range of potential actions.

• People SELF-MANAGE their work, and use DIALOGUE and INQUIRY--not "problems-solving"--as the main tool. That means helping each other do the tasks and taking responsibility for our perceptions and actions.

• COMMON GROUND rather than "conflict management" is the frame of reference. That means honoring our difference and then discovering areas for action where we have a strong common ground.

• APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY ("AI") -- To appreciate means to value--to understand those things worth valuing. To inquire means to study, to ask questions, to search. AI is, therefore, a collaborative search to identify and understand the organization's strengths, the greatest opportunities, and people's aspirations and hopes for the future.

• COMMITMENT TO ACTION--Because the "whole system" is involved, it is easier to make mroe rapid decisions, and to make commitments to action in an open way that everyone can support and  help make happen. 

To read more about this Appreciative Inquiry Summit, please click here. 

The Special Tasks and Significance of the Arena of School Wellness

Let’s assume that tonight, after our session, you go into a sound sleep and when you wake it is 11 years in the future — it is now 2020. But while you were asleep things have changed in wonderful ways! Several developments, both small and large, have happened that they seem like miracles, and our schools and communities have changed in ways you would most like to see. Innovative partnerships across the community are supporting wildly successful initiatives that promote health in our schools. Teachers, administrators and staff are role models of health. The curriculum in every subject has been leveraged to promote wellness for our children. Every student has a personalized health plan and excited to follow it. Healthy foods and engaging activities are readily accessible and affordable. Indeed, our schools have become world-class models of health and well-being for every student.

• Imagine that you awaken to find all these things – and more- happening. You go out into the city of Houston in 2020 and get a panoramic view of our healthy schools and community and it has become the kind of community that you most want to see. Please describe now what you see in your vision of this ideal future. Describe what is happening in 2020 that is new, changed, or better? How do you know?
• More specifically now, what do you see in your vision of the future happening within your specific organization (classroom, school, business, etc.) that is successfully promoting healthy schools and healthy kids in a new, changed, or better way? What is the evidence you see for this?
• Finish the sentence: I will be most proud of the Houston Independent School District of the future when…?