School-based initiatives are a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to obesity prevention. For example, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program works in 15,000 schools across the country, helping schools to adopt policies and practices that make healthy eating and physical activity the norm, not the exception, on school campuses. A recent evaluation of the program found that more than 80 percent of schools made positive improvements to help students eat better and move more.
The Healthy Schools Program focuses on providing schools with technical assistance for implementation at no cost. It also helps schools overcome a number of challenges. As one program overview notes, “schools cited budget cuts, time constraints, and accountability demands as common obstacles to implementing healthier policies. However, the evaluators found that the Healthy Schools Program helped school leaders find creative ways to support healthy eating and regular physical activity for students and staff.”
One creative strategy? Tapping into the power of kids themselves, and asking them to counsel their peers, parents, school boards and others on what it takes to give kids the best possible shot at staying healthy. Ashlyn Pinkins is a teen from the New Orleans area who, in 2012, became one of the Alliance’s Youth Advisory Board members. In that role, she collaborated with a group of 21 students across the country teaching students how to become and stay healthy, and teaching grownups how to more effectively reach kids.
One creative strategy? Tapping into the power of kids themselves, and asking them to counsel their peers, parents, school boards and others on what it takes to give kids the best possible shot at staying healthy.
Ashlyn’s story
I began talking with the school board because I wanted to find a way to introduce healthier habits at schools. We came up with the idea of having a health rally. We invited different speakers to come in and talk to the youth. We chose a school and had students from every school in Jefferson Parish attend.
We gave them healthy snacks, we taught exercises, and we had booths that focused on different healthy habits. We also taught them games that they could do to help them stay active. It was a really big hit, and it has turned into an annual event.
They are dedicated to incorporating healthy activities and healthy habits at the school. Teachers are also great with it. My P.E. coach took the programs we started and ran with them. We’ve been working together to educate the teachers about healthy living and coming up with activities that they can do together within the school. They now have yoga and other activities that they can do after school, so the teachers — our role models — can be healthier and more active, too.
We’ve seen a lot of great changes in the past few years. We’ve changed the vending machines. Our school started serving salads at lunch and offering different physical activities for the students to do when they finish eating. One day we’ll have yoga, one day we’ll have circuit training, and one day we’ll have another different group activity. I’m really proud of our school and the work our school board and teachers have done to help our students be healthier. We all needed it!
Ashlyn’s tips
- Schools: Visit www.healthiergeneration.org and enroll your school in the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program.
- Take your ideas to teachers and administrators. They recognize that good ideas come from kids, too!
- Take advantage of the physical activities offered at your school.
- Do your part: be a role model by adopting healthy habits and practicing them among your friends.
Hear more of Ashlyn’s story
To read more about Ashlyn and other families who’ve adopted healthy habits to combat childhood obesity in their own homes visit www.bewellbook.org, and order or download your free copies of A Year of Being Well: Messages from Families on Living Healthier Lives. You can also hear more from Ashlyn in her own words.
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