Promoting nutrition and activity for today's muticultural hip-hop youth generation

Since the early 1980's, hip-hop has served as a powerful voice and form of expression for young people of color. It has evolved into a culture with its own language, style of dress and mindset. Despite its global popularity and appeal, few nutrition and physical activity programs have taken advantage of its ability to speak the needs and values of youth today. Based on the findings of a 2-month collaborative with local hip-hop talent and the youth feedback from 6 community-based after school programs in the San Francisco Bay Area, CANFit developed the Promoting Healthy Activities Together (P.H.A.T.) program and multimedia kit. P.H.A.T. embraces music, dance, emceeing and other elements of hip-hop culture to improve the nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviors of today's multicultural adolescents. It also provides communication strategies and tools for youth serving adults to sustain the importance of a healthy lifestyle among youth for generations to come. Hip-hop culture is so infused in our society that it must be considered in addressing today's young people. This presentation will discuss the P.H.A.T. program and provide important methods on how to use hip-hop to motivate youth to eat better and be more active.