Our History

August 18, 2005: Over 100 people gathered at the Delta Center (now Energy Solutions Arena) for “Tipping the Scales toward Healthier Children: The Utah Childhood Obesity Forum.” The forum was sponsored by the Utah Department of Health, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, the Delta Center and the Utah Jazz. Participants heard about the growing problem of obesity in Utah and then organized into discussion groups to determine strategies.

The Utah Department of Health incorporated the findings from the Forum in creating the document “Tipping the Scales toward a Healthier Population: The Utah Blueprint to promote Healthy Weight for Children, Youth and Adults” (link to pdf).

The initial meeting to begin implementation of the Blueprint was held on September 25, 2006 at the Governor's mansion and was hosted by Governor and Mrs. Huntsman. Over 50 community leaders and their organizations were invited to form a private-public partnership.

On February 1, 2007, a follow-up meeting was held at the Utah Department of Health. It was at this meeting that representatives of the partner organizations agreed to name this initiative – both themselves as a coalition and the to-be-incorporated nonprofit organization – the Utah Partnership for Healthy Weight (UPHW). In April 2009, representatives of the UPHW partner organizations voted to brand the UPHW and its activities with a user-friendlier name. The result of this decision is BeeWell Utah.

Today, representatives of the partner organizations meet quarterly to review current projects and determine future activities. Individual workgroups meet on their own to develop and oversee ongoing activities. Some of those include securing financial resources, creating messages, developing research proposals and implementing programs.