DIALOGUE4HEALTH
Dialogue4Health
Web Forum
Programs and Policies to Get Kids Active Outside of School Time
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 | 10:30 AM to Noon Pacific
Increased physical activity among children helps create life long healthy habits that prevent obesity. Children's participation in regular physical activity is associated with improved cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health, better mental health and emotional wellbeing, and chronic disease prevention. There also is substantial evidence showing that physically fit children perform better in the classroom. Despite the overwhelming evidence that physical activity is beneficial, however, more than half of U.S. children and adolescents are not getting enough physical activity.
After-school programs could potentially provide up to 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day, satisfying half of the national recommendation for daily physical activity. However, much work remains to be done to create more consistent policies and implement activity programs that are evidence-based. Furthermore, there needs to be efforts to monitor progress toward meeting policies and holding programs accountable.
Co-sponsored by Active Living Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this Web Forum will provide recommendations for how programs and policies can better support physical activity in after-school settings and provide examples from national and local efforts. Speakers will share success stories from the YMCA – the largest provider of after-school programs in the nation – and discuss lessons learned from initiatives that successfully increase children's physical activity levels. Speakers will also briefly explore how to promote physical activity during summertime and other academic break periods.Please join us for this exciting conversation!
PRESENTERS
Michael W. Beets, MEd, MPH, PhD
Professor
Division of the Health Aspects of Physical Activity
Program Director
Masters of Public Health in Physical Activity
Arnold School of Public Health
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC
Michael Beets is a professor in the Division of the Health Aspects of Physical Activity in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina and is the Program Director for the Masters of Public Health in Physical Activity. Currently, his research focuses on working with community-based afterschool programs and summer day camps to enhance physical activity and healthy eating opportunities. At the center of his research is the development and evaluation of low-cost, effective, scalable strategies that afterschool and summer programs can use to meet existing state and national physical activity and healthy eating standards and policies. (www.sph.sc.edu/exsc)
Monica Hobbs Vinluan, JD
Project Director
Healthier Communities Initiatives
YMCA of the USA
Washington, DC
Monica joined the YMCA of the USA in 2007 as Project Manager for the ACHIEVE (Action Communities for Health, Innovation and Environmental Change) initiative, a collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other national partners. She currently serves as Project Director for Y-USA’s Healthier Communities Initiatives, working specifically on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Statewide Pioneering Healthier Communities (Statewide PHC), engaging community and state leadership to implement policy, systems, and environmental changes to improve health. (www.achievecommunities.org)
Becky Ciminillo
Executive Director
Child Care
YMCA of Central Ohio
Columbus, OH
Becky has worked for the YMCA of Central Ohio for 23 years, developing resources and managing programs for children and youth ages 6 weeks-18 years. She has been a National Faculty Level Trainer for the YMCA of the USA since 1991 and conducts many statewide and local trainings around youth development, after school program administration, child abuse and after school health and fitness programming.
In addition to her work with children and youth, Becky has been involved with writing and managing several grant projects related to childhood obesity prevention. (www.ymcacolumbus.org)
MODERATOR
Deborah Lou, PhD
Program Analyst
Active Living Research
A National Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, CA
Debbie Lou is the program analyst with Active Living Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Debbie engages advocacy, policy, and community groups to develop opportunities for research translation and dissemination, especially to ensure the research meets the needs of communities at highest risk for childhood obesity.
Debbie is co-author of a research synthesis with Dr. Wendell Taylor titled “Do All Children Have Places to be Active?” This synthesis reviews evidence showing that lower-income people and racial and ethnic minorities often live in communities that discourage active living. (www.activelivingresearch.org)
