223083 Empowering youth: A Project Healthy Schools and Life in Action Collaboration

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Susan Aaronson, MS RD , Wellness Coordinator, MHealthy, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
Caren S. Goldberg, MD , Pediatrics and Communicable Disease and Surgery, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
Elizabeth Jackson, MD MPH , Internal Medicine Medical School, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
Jean DuRussel-Weston, RN MPH CHES , MHealthy-Project Healthy Schools, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
LaVaughn Palma-Davis, MA , MFit, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
Marc Zimmerman, PhD , Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Roopa Gurm, MS , MCORRP (Cardiology), University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
Catherine Fitzgerald, RD , MFit, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
Lindsey Rose Mitchell, MPH , MFit, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
Kim A. Eagle, MD , Albion Walter Hewlett Professor of Internal Medicine, Professor of Internal Medicine, Medical School, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, MI
Empowerment theory suggests that health promotion requires youth to develop specific skills, positive assets and apply these to become agents of change. We have shown that the standard Project Healthy Schools (PHS) intervention led to increases in exercise, produce consumption, reduced screen time and fatty food intake, and physiological improvements in blood pressure and lipid profiles at 6, 18 and 24 months. We hypothesized that Life in Action (LIA) would empower students to act in a socially responsible manner and may promote behaviors that reduce obesity.

PHS, a 6 year Community-University collaborative to decrease childhood obesity and cardiovascular risk factors through educational and environmental interventions. LIA, a Free the Children initiative, empowers youth to make positive changes through healthy eating, active lifestyles and socially responsible actions. LIA clubs are in their 3 rd year at three of the five Ann Arbor PHS middle schools.

LIA members conducted events focused on wellness and improving socially responsible awareness. Members empowered students to raise $40,790, funding 3 schools, 3 water projects, 2 alternative income projects and donating $30,000 of medical supplies to impoverished global regions.

LIA members participated in activities that enhanced their awareness of world poverty and its effect on health. They also successfully organized healthy activities that made meaningful improvements in the communities they supported. Whether this social empowerment of club members further promotes behaviors that reduce obesity and improve obesity related biomarkers, and the extent to which effects extend to other students at LIA schools remains to be determined.

Learning Areas:
Diversity and culture
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Public health or related education

Learning Objectives:
Discuss how empowering youth to become socially responsible, can lead to positive improvements in healthy eating and physical activity.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Social Justice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Wellness Coordinator administering both PHS and facilitating the LIA program.
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.