Two years ago, the City of Whittier Community Services Department and the YMCA of Greater Whittier, concerned with the 25.3% childhood obesity rate in Whittier – one of the highest in Los Angeles County – came together to discuss ways they could cooperatively address such alarming health trends and maximize resources for greater impact, said Fran Shields, Activate Whittier Chair and City Director of Community Services. At that time, they became acquainted with “Core Communities,” an on-line fitness and wellness program.

Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital and the Los Angeles Public Health Department were invited to collaborate and “Activate Whittier” was born. The Whittier Social Services Commission provided the initial $2,000 in seed money to begin the www.ActivateWhittier.org website. Recently, the Whittier Community Foundation took action to become the local non-profit foundation to oversee the project.

A key component of “Activate Whittier” is a “living website”, available for anyone in the community to log onto, join and become active. It is available for individuals, groups, schools and corporations. The site allows individual and group participants to track their activity, nutrition, weight and hydration as well as competing with others for motivation. There are activities and competitions to earn points and receive recognition and prizes for health and fitness efforts. “Activate Whittier” also provides links to other sites for health and wellness information, events and more. It can be changed and updated for special events and activities, such as “Breast Cancer Awareness Month.”

At the kick-off event, the “Activate Whittier” website will be introduced and demonstrated to the community. Based on the experience of other cities using the “Core Community” program, Jeff Lopez, who has developed the website for the Whittier program, said that with good marketing and leadership, “Activate Whittier” could achieve an active membership of 10,000 within three years.

Shields said there is already a good deal of community interest in “Activate Whittier.”

“The mission of ‘Activate Whittier’ is to motivate and support a healthy community through wellness education and physical activity,” Shields said. “Our vision is to develop a ‘Healthy Community Partnership’ putting Whittier in the forefront of the nation in promoting health education and physical education.”

Current partners in “Activate Whittier” are the City of Whittier, YMCA of Greater Whittier, Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital and the County of Los Angeles, Public Health Department. “By supporting each others’ efforts and working together, we can maximize our resources, to the benefit of the community,” Shields said.

For more information on “Activate Whittier” programs and how to get involved contact a partner at:

City of Whittier (562) 464-3360

YMCA of Greater Whittier (562) 907-6530 Uptown Whittier YMCA

(562) 943-7241 East Whittier YMCA

Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital (562) 698-0811, ext. 14110

County of Los Angeles, Public Health Dept. (562) 464-5369