American Planning Association Releases Healthy Communities Policy Guide

The American Heart Association, Inc. (the "Association") is proud to bring you the Voices for Healthy Kids Action Center website, designed to offer you the ability to connect with and support (“Services”) those working to change policies and environments to help all children grow-up at a healthy weight (the “Network Mission”). Your use of this website and all information on any other AHA web page or other AHA property accessed through it (collectively "Website") is governed by the terms and conditions of this User Agreement. The Association may amend these terms and conditions from time to time. Users of the Network and the Services should also review the Network’s Privacy Policy.

READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE ACCEPTING OR AFFIRMING YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE AGREEMENT. YOU MAY BE ASKED TO CLICK “I AGREE” OR “I ACCEPT.” ACCEPTING THESE TERMS, EVEN IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THEM, IS THE SAME AS SIGNING THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL OF THESE TERMS, DO NOT ACCEPT.

THIS WEBSITE IS INTENDED FOR USE BY PERSONS OF MAJORITY AGE AND IS GOVERNED BY THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

If you have any questions about these Terms of Use or the Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us at: Voices for Healthy Kids Action Center
Office of State Advocacy
American Heart Association
7272 Greenville Avenue
Dallas, TX 75231

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The Association owns, or is the licensee of, all copyrights, trademarks, or other proprietary rights contained in the Web Site.  User may view the Website, download individual articles to User's personal or handheld computer for later reading and print a copy of pages for reading by User, so long as all applicable notices and disclaimers are included.   User may not remove any copyright notices.  The Association reserves all other rights. User may not sell, modify, redistribute, put on another Web site or otherwise publicly display or publicly perform, or use for any commercial purpose, any materials or information obtained from the Web Site without the Association's prior written permission.  In using content in accordance with these Terms of Use, you may not (1) state or imply that the Association is endorsing you, your viewpoints or any of the products or services that you or your organization may provide, or (2) represent that you or your organization has a relationship with the Association or any of the events, products or services that the Association provides unless that relationship is the subject of a written agreement that has been signed by the Association. You will not access any content of the Services through any technology or means other than the pages of the Website itself, the Widgets (as defined below) or such other explicitly authorized means as the Association may designate.

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Services and Submissions

Through the Network, we will offer the Website, which may include, among other things, blogs, blogger outreach services, text message outreach services, social media services, data sharing services, online communities, and other services. The use of the Services is subject to these Terms of Use and any additional provisions that may be provided in connection with use of this Website.

All users are solely responsible for the content provided or posted, and users shall not violate the U.S. intellectual property rights of any person or entity.  While the Association does not control or censor the content posted or submitted by users, we reserve the right to not post, or to remove, content that we believe violates theses Terms of Use, in our sole discretion.  Content provided by users will not be treated as confidential under any circumstances.

For content that you provide to the Network that is covered by intellectual property rights, you grant the Association a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, in any form now existing or hereafter discovered, any content that you post on or in connection with the Services.

Widgets.

To the extent that the Association makes available to you through the Services (or otherwise) "widgets" to obtain access to Content from the Services (collectively, the “Widgets”), you agree as a condition to accessing and using such items that you will not use the Widgets for any commercial use, without the prior written consent of the Association. Prohibited commercial uses include, but are not limited to, sale of access to the Services on another web site and use of the Services for the purpose of gaining advertising or subscription revenue.

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Some of the Services may require that you create/receive a password and account designation before using the Services. See “Registration” below. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any such password and account, and are fully responsible for all activities that occur under your password or account. If you allow third parties to access the Services through your username and password, you will defend and indemnify the Association and its Representatives from and against any liability, costs or damages arising out of claims or suits based upon or relating to such access and use. You agree to immediately notify the Network as set forth above of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security related to the Services of which you are aware.

Unlawful or Prohibited Use.

As a condition of your use of the Services, you will not use the Services for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by these Terms of Service or is otherwise prohibited under applicable law. You may not use the Services in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden, or impair the Services or interfere with any other party's use and enjoyment of the Services. You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to any Services.

Guidelines. Be respectful of others -- do not post or send:

1. Content or communications that are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, sexually explicit, obscene, pornographic, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;

2. Content or communications that falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your identity, affiliation with the Association, or any person or other entity;

3. Confidential business or personal information, or content that infringes any trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party;

4. Content or communications that make available unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, sweepstakes, junk mail, spam, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any similar form of solicitation;

5. Content or communications that are fraudulent, false, inaccurate or misleading;

6. Content or communications that violate any law, ordinance or regulation; that promotes illegal activities; that is harmful to minors; or

7. Links to files that contain viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another's computer or property of another.

Registration

A user’s ability to access to the Services is based on that user’s level of user authorization.

Unregistered Users.

Unregistered users of the Network have limited access to the Services. They can see public information on the website, including blog posts, educational resources, and the Leader Directory.  Unregistered users may also contact people in the Leader Directory individually, using the social media links (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) shared by the Leader. Unregistered users may also, subject to these Terms of Service, embed Widgets on other web sites, but they cannot customize the Widgets or have access to any of the contact information or other data generated by the use of such Widgets.

Registered Users.

There are two types of registered users of the Network:

Supporters.

Supporters are people who affirmatively opt-in to participate in the Network by filling out a registration form (“Contacts”) or completing an online action.  They can take action on alerts and view public information, including blog posts, educational resources, and the Leader Directory.  Supporters may also contact people in the Leader Directory individually, using the social media links (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) shared by the Leader.  

Network Leader.

Network Leaders are Contacts who have completed a registration form requesting Network Leader status and who have been approved by the Network based on a) a demonstrated organizational commitment to the Network Mission, and b) a track record of having done work to engage or organize others (“Network Leaders”). In addition to retaining all the user privileges of Supporters, Network Leaders can create public profiles to share in the Leader Directory. They can, subject to these Terms of Service, embed Widgets on other websites and request the set-up of action alerts and email launches to the network through Voices for Healthy Kids Action Center staff.  

All mass communications requested by Network Leaders via email, text or other forms of mass communication, must abide by the following rules: (1) all communications must be in line with the Network Mission and (2) each communication must include a footer on all messages which provides: (i) notification that the recipient’s contact information was provided by the Network, (ii) a link to the Privacy Policy, and (iii) link to the Network’s opt-out tool.

Access and Interference

You agree not to circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with security-related features of the Services or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of any content or enforce limitations on use of the Services or the Content therein. You agree that you will not use any bot, crawler, harvester, indexer, robot, spider, scraper or any other automated means to access, compile, read or gather content from the Services automatically. Additionally, you agree that you will not: (a) take any action that, in our sole discretion, imposes, or may impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure; (b) interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Services or any activities conducted on the Services; or (c) bypass any measures we may use to prevent or restrict access to the Services.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Association and the Representatives from and against any and all losses, damages, liabilities and costs of every nature incurred by any of them in connection with any claim, damage or loss related to or arising out of: your use of the Services, any assistance or Services provided by us or the Representatives to you, any alleged unauthorized use of the Services by you, or any breach or alleged breach by you of these Terms of Service. You agree to cooperate fully in the defense of any of the foregoing. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to control exclusively the defense of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you and you will not settle any matter without our prior written consent. Your obligation to indemnify, defend and hold harmless shall be limited to the extent that you are afforded sovereign immunity under applicable federal, state or local laws. In such cases where your obligation to indemnify may be limited due to the requirements of federal, state or local laws, you shall be responsible for the ordinary negligent acts and omissions of your agents and employees causing harm to persons not a party to these Terms of Service.

Release

In the event that you have a dispute with one or more other users of the Services, you release the Association and Representatives from any and all claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes.

Applicable Law and Jurisdiction

This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Venue for any cause of action arising under this Agreement shall be proper in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas.

Electronic Communications; Binding and Entire Agreement

You agree that (a) these Terms of Service constitute an agreement "signed by you" under applicable law; (b) any notices or other communication regarding your use of the Services may be provided to you electronically (by posting on the web site, by e-mail, and other electronic formats) and will be considered received upon posting or other distribution. These Terms of Service (including the Privacy Policy) constitute the entire agreement between you and the Association and supersede all other agreements, oral or written, concerning its subject matter. You consent to the use of the English language in these Terms of Service and all documents or notices relating to them and your use of the Services.

Severability

If any provision of this Agreement is held to be illegal, invalid, or unenforceable under present or future laws, then such provision shall be fully severable, this Agreement shall be construed and enforced as if such illegal, invalid, or unenforceable provision had never comprised a part of this Agreement, and the remaining provisions of this Agreement shall remain in full force and effect and shall not be affected by the illegal, invalid, or unenforceable provision or by its severance from this Agreement.

Termination

Applicable Law: This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict of laws rules. Venue for any cause of action arising under this Agreement shall be proper in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas.

Waiver:  The terms of this Agreement cannot be waived or modified except by the Association.  There are no representations, warranties or covenants other than those set forth in this Agreement, which sets forth the entire understanding between the parties.  The User's rights and obligations hereunder are personal to User and cannot be assigned, sublicensed or otherwise transferred or encumbered by User or by operation of law.  Any such assignment in contravention of the foregoing shall be null and void and of no force and effect. 

Leaders are people who are actively working - either professionally or as volunteers - to change policies and environments to help children eat better and be more active. We use the following criteria to evaluate whether to approve an applicant for Leader status with the Voices for Healthy Kids Action Center.

Do you meet the criteria below? If so, register as a Leader here. There is no cost to be a Leader.

Leader Approval Requirements:

At least one item must be checked within each of the following two categories:

1. Applicant is focused on changing policies and environments

• They are working on one of Voices for Healthy Kid's six issue areas:

  • Ensure foods and beverages in schools meet dietary guidelines

  • Expand community access to high quality food

  • Expand physical activity programs in and out of school

  • Improve built environment in communities to increase physical activity

  • Use pricing strategies to promote purchase of healthier foods

  • Use regulation/policy to reduce youth exposure to unhealthy food marketing

• They are working on other obesity-related issues, such as:

  • Transportation policy

  • Other

• Their primary focus is working on individual behavior (e.g., teaching kids about food, play, etc.), but they have access to organizations that could provide opportunities to change environments, such as

  • Schools

  • Local Governments

  • Public Health Agencies

  • Food producers

  • Advertisers

  • Other

• Their project is commercial, but contributes positively to changing policies and environments, such as:

  • Farmer's market

  • Supermarket

  • Farmer

  • Food company

  • Advertiser

  • Other

2. Applicant is organizing others or contributing to organizing efforts

• They are organizing others by:

  • Doing training

  • Providing volunteer opportunities

  • Building contact lists of supporters to engage in advocacy

  • Holding events

  • Other

• They provide support to organizations or leaders doing work changing policies and environments, such as:

  • Funding

  • Evaluation

  • Capacity Building

  • Research

  • Other

• They are a leader in a governmental body that may be the target of organizing efforts to change policies and environments, such as a:

  • Federal or state agency

  • Mayor or other local executive office

  • Federal, state, county or local public health department

  • Federal, state, county or transportation department

  • Federal, state or local education agency or school board

  • Other

If the applicant claims to work for an organization, at least one item must be checked below:

3. Applicant works for an organization:

• Has an email address that matches the domain of the organization they list

• Is listed on the organization website as staff

The Voices for Healthy Kids Action Center is looking for bloggers who can write about issues that matter to our community on a regular basis. If you would like to be considered for this network, please check this box.