A Healthier You Legacy Awards Program is a collaborative effort of the Utah Department of Health and community partners. It is a unique program that started as part of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
The Program recognizes the efforts of communities, schools, worksites, and college campuses to increase opportunities for their constituents to participate in health-enhancing areas: physical activity, nutrition, healthy behaviors, and safety.
A Healthier You Legacy Awards Program, with input from many state and local experts, has developed specific criteria for policies (written and monitored city/town policies, procedures or ordinances), infrastructure (basic facilities, equipment, resources and environmental supports provided in/by the city/town), and outcomes (expected changes that will result from the implementation of the program/activity and methods to measure progress) at bronze, silver, gold, and platinum levels.
Each site-specific page in the left menu contain the award criteria and application instructions. You can also view the award winners for each site.
Why AHY is needed:
- Over half of all Utah adults are overweight or obese.
- Only one out of five Utah adults eat five or more fruits and vegetables each day.
- Almost 50% of Utah adults get insufficient physical activity.
- About 17% of Utah adults report no leisure time physical activity.
- In 2006, 22.5% of all elementary students were at an unhealthy weight. More boys were overweight at every Grade.
- In 1994, 16.9% of 3rd Graders were at an unhealthy weight. In 2006, 21.8% of 3rd Graders were at an unhealthy weight. This represents a 67% increase.
- If the number of elementary school students at an unhealthy weight continues to increase at the current rate, in ten years a total of 30.3% of elementary school students will be at an unhealthy weight.
- Utah ranked eleventh highest in the country for bicycle fatality rate between 1995 and 2004.
- Injuries are the leading cause of deaths in Utah for residents ages 1-44 years.
- Injury is the leading cause of years of potential life lost in Utah.
- On average, 1,300 Utah residents die, 10,400 are hospitalized, and 181,100 are treated in emergency departments because of injury each year.
- Approximately 1,100 Utahns die each year from smoking-related diseases.
- The Utah economy loses $530 million to smoking attributable medical and productivity costs each year.
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