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Rosalie Aguilar-Santos

Rosalie Aguilar Santos, MS, is Salud America!'s national project coordinator. She is passionate about nutrition, physical activity, and opportunities to engage communities in advocacy actions to promote Latino childhood health.

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Articles by Rosalie Aguilar-Santos

Miami-Dade County Elementary Schools Use Scan Code Technology to Increase Minutes of Physical Activity



Elementary schools belonging to the Miami-Dade County Public School (MDCPS) system in Florida (66% Latino) are exploring new ways of getting students to be active throughout the school day. According to a blog post from PreventObesity.org, in addition to providing students with 30 minutes of daily physical education (PE), the district is now using the concepts of indoor fitness trails and scan technology to provide students with more minutes of physical activity. School hallways are transformed into indoor fitness trails with QR codes that are placed throughout hallways. Teachers schedule a time for using the fitness trail and stop where QR codes are located. They are then scanned with an iPad or mobile device that has a QR reader app installed on it. Once a QR code is ...

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New Guidelines For Engaging the Public in the Community Design Process To Be Developed



What's one way to build healthy communities? How about giving the community a voice in the design process? That's what the Center for Active Design hopes to accomplish by developing new guidelines to promote civic engagement as part of the design process. Thanks to the support of a $115,000 grant from the Miami based, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Center for Active Design will build on previous work such as the Active Design Guidelines, through its new “Designing for Robust Engagement, initiative. “We believe that design plays a key role in developing communities that are more civically engaged, and we want to understand its true impact,” says Reena Agarwal, Center for Active Design policy director in an American City and County news article. “Funding ...

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Plans for Improvements to San Francisco’s Second Street Are in the Works



A street makeover for San Francisco's Second Street is in the works. According to a news article from socketsite.com plans for the upgrades to Second Street include: bike lanes, sidewalks, plants, and safe roadways---all part of what a true complete street should look like. This project aims to make Second Street a complete street, or a street designed for all road users. According to a factsheet from the San Francisco Public Works department, after gathering all the necessary permits, construction for the project could begin in 2016 and be complete within about a year. Read more about this ...

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YMCA in Salem Offers 7th Graders Free Membership!



Seventh grade is a crucial time in the development of a child. That's why after school fitness programs and initiatives that introduce kids to healthy eating habits are crucial at this age. According to a story from the Salem News, 41% of children in Salem are considered obese, a number higher than the statewide average of 33%. In order to keep kids on a path to good health, the YMCA of Salem received a $20,000 grant from North Shore Medical Center. Already the grant has helped fund a mobile farmer's market and an urban garden, built by students at Salem High. Now, these funds will be used towards providing at least 275 seventh grade students with a free membership to the YMCA. Ordinarily, memberships cost $264 per year. The YMCA will provide each participating student with a ...

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Community Teamwork Brings A New Park to Tomball, TX



Thanks to the support of community volunteers, two national organizations, and a private donation, kids living in the city of Tomball, TX can celebrate a new park! On the morning of December 5, a team of over 200 volunteers from 40 different organizations, gathered to donate their time and talents towards something that will benefit everyone---a new park. When kids have access to nearby parks, they're more likely to be physically active and healthy. That's why in  2011, Kaboom! and Humana teamed up to bring more parks to communities in need across the nation. According to a news article from the Houston Chronicle, in 2013, Humana's CEO Bruce Broussard, donated 14 acres of land to the city of Tomball. "I think they were skeptical at first," he stated in The Chronicle. "But ...

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New Proposed Food Labels



The FDA is proposing to update the Nutrition Facts label found on most food packages in the United States. The Nutrition Facts label, introduced 20 years ago, helps consumers make informed food choices and maintain healthy dietary practices. These changes would help consumers better understand the labels by clearly displaying important nutrition information. The new labels would also include updated serving size requirements, reflecting realistic serving sizes based on how much consumers usually eat instead of what they "should" eat. You can find out more info about these proposed changes here on the FDA's website. ...

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AHA Finds Success With Enacting Shared Use Policy in Arizona



The American Heart Association (AHA) is happy to announce that its affiliates and volunteers in Arizona have succeeded with getting legislation passed to encourage schools to adopt shared use policies! In 2012, a group of health leaders first began working with the state legislature to finds ways to create tools that would allow schools to share their facilities with the community, while protecting them from liability. “We added language into the statute that would essentially make school grounds a public park when school was not in session,” said Nicole Olmstead, government relations director for the American Heart Association in Arizona, in an AHA press release. In the testimony she provided to the statehouse during the 2014 legislature, Olmstead said: “Safe places for ...

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Miami Parents Make Plans For First Ever ‘Kidical Mass’ Event



A group of parents in Miami, FL, who are seeking to ensure the safety of their children as they ride their bikes, is organizing the city's first ever "Kidical Mass" event. The event is set to take place in January 2015. According to a blog post from TransitMiami.com, the idea for Kidical Mass originated back in 2008 in Eugene, OR. The event has since spread to over 12 communities throughout Canada & the US. The purpose of the event is to raise awareness about the importance of respecting all road users, and to teach kids and parents riding and safety skills.  The ride will be approximately 1-3 miles and will last about an hour. Children are expected to wear helmets and to ride with a guardian. Kids of all ages are encouraged to attend and to wear their favorite ...

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Chicago Schools Bring Daily P.E. (and Recess and in-Class Activity) to Students



Students at Chicago Public Schools weren’t getting enough physical activity and time spent in P.E., so district officials created a new department solely to improve the health and wellness of students. The department’s new chief health officer led the enactment of three new health policies and the rollout of a plan to bring at least 30 minutes of daily P.E. to all students. Soon students in grades K-8 will be getting a minimum of 150 minutes of P.E. a week, and all high school students will be required to take P.E. every semester. EMERGENCE Awareness: As the third-largest school district in the nation, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are responsible for ensuring a healthy learning environment for its diverse student body (45% Hispanic and 39% black). For many years, the district ...

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