WHO Healthy Cities and the US family support movements: a marriage made in heaven or estranged bed fellows?

The family support movement in the US emerged at about the sametime that the WHO Healthy Cities project was gaining momentumin Europe, and the underlying principles and ecologic frameworksof the two have much in common. However, while many ‘HealthyCities’ in Europe have included activities that benefitfamilies, this has not been made a major focus. There seemsto be little awareness of experience gained in the US in termsof establishing programs with limited or no government funding,using volunteers, and developing social marketing and advocacystrategies to sustain long term viability. Similarly, citiesand states in the US are struggling to develop networks of familysupport programs and they appear to be doing this without thebenefit of experience gained in Healthy Cities projects on howto engage political leadership, develop public policies, establishintersectoral councils, fund a coordinator position, mobilizeneighborhoods, and evaluate community wide health promotionprograms. The purpose of this paper is to examine how thesetwo movements might join forces and learn from each other.