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How Tomorrow Moves: Creating Opportunities to Increase Physical Activity in Schools
Introduction: Schools offer many opportunities to get kids moving. It is suggested that children receive 30 of the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity per day at school. Through the School Grants for Healthy Kids: How Tomorrow Moves initiative, Action for Healthy Kids worked with 200 schools in 10 states to increase physical activity to at least 30 minutes per day during the 2013-2014 school year.
Methods: Schools worked to add movement to their student’s day by implementing innovative physical activity strategies including: recess/play-space/gymnasium refurbishing, equipment for recess and physical education, brain breaks, before- and after-school programming, walking and biking to school programming and fitness testing. In addition, schools engaged family and community volunteers through the nationally recognized Every Kid Healthy Week and the Get in the Action Volunteer Center.
Results: Ninety-five percent of schools were able to increase their physical activity levels to meet the recommended 30 minutes during the school day and 40% were able to meet the full 60 minutes per day. Schools reported six common themes: increased awareness, increased physical activity, student participation, student engagement, parent support, and funding.
Discussion: Increasing physical activity in schools faces many barriers including scheduling issues, lack of space and staff buy-in but by utilizing innovative physical activity strategies, schools are able to significantly increase movement throughout the student day. Providing small seed grants, technical assistance, events and opportunities to engage family and community volunteers, Action for Healthy Kids has developed an innovative model to help schools get kids moving.
Learning Areas:
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programsLearning Objectives:
Describe successes and lessons learned related to increasing physical activity in schools.
Identify ways to engage family and community in efforts to increase physical activity in schools.
Explain how the Get in the Action Volunteer Center can be utilized to engage skilled local volunteers in school wellness initiatives across the country.
Keyword(s): Physical Activity, School-Based Health
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Hannah G. Laughlin, MPH, Regional Field Manager, Midwest/Northwest. Hannah is responsible for growing the capacity of Action for Healthy Kids state teams in 19 states including strategically in Illinois and Chicago. Hannah received her Master in Public Health from Indiana University. She started her career working at the local level on issues related to childhood obesity and community health initiatives. Her areas of interest include school wellness, childhood obesity, pediatric health and community-based programming.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.