Building Healthy Families

Better Health for the Family

Building Healthy Families (BHF) is a program centered on improving the health of the whole family and achieving and maintaining a healthy body weight. It supports families to make sensible and sustainable changes to how they eat and the activities they do using research-tested behavior change strategies.

Key strategies include:

  • 1
    Goal-setting for both lifestyle modification and weight loss
  • 2
    Self-monitoring
  • 3
    Rewards and contingency management
  • 4
    Role-modeling
  • 5
    Stimulus control (e.g., modifying the home environment to avoid triggers)

For the Whole Family

BHF is a program designed for the whole family. During the program, families learn to set goals to create healthier lifestyles together. We want parents/guardians, children between the ages of 6 and 12 years old with a BMI above the 95th percentile, and their siblings to attend each session.

The program is effective in helping families, children, and parents, to make sensible and sustainable changes to their nutrition and physical activity using research-tested behavior change strategies through a person-first and health-centered approach. Families love this program because they do it together!

What To Expect

BHF supports you on your wellness journey for one full year. You’ll also gain support from other families who are taking the program with you.

The 12-month program includes:

  • An informational session for interested families to ask questions and learn more
  • 12 weekly sessions (2 hours each)
  • 6 refresher sessions (1.5 hours each)

Building Healthy Families was developed and funded, in part, by the University of Nebraska at Kearney and the University of Nebraska Medical Center with support by Cooperative Agreement number 1U18DP006431-01-00, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).