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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

Creating & Sustaining A Culture of Health In Brownsville, TX



The city of Brownsville, Texas which sits on the Texas-Mexico border was desperately in need of some changes for better health. Fortunately, a diverse group of leaders banded together to implement a variety of initiatives to reach locals with improved access to healthy foods, culturally relevant opportunities for physical activity and programs to aid those with limited access to health care. In an article from Health Affairs blog, Salud Hero and associate professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Belinda Reininger recounts how some of Brownville's leaders got started with bringing about a culture of health to its residents. According to the article, in Brownsville, 48% of children live in poverty, 80% are obese or overweight, 30% of the population has ...

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Georgia SHAPE Partners With Playworks To Improve Recess



Georgia Shape, a statewide initiative which seeks to bring an additional 30 minutes of physical activity to every elementary school in Georgia has partnered with the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation and Playworks, an organization that works to improve the quality of recess by creating a bully-free zone. Through the partnership, Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, commissioner Georgia Department of Public Health, said in a Crossroads news article, that the aim would be to  make recess safer by providing support and training to staff for delivering the Playworks curriculum to at least 35,000 students at elementary schools across the state. To support this effort and to make recess more inclusive,  the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation provided an additional $750,000 in grant funds towards the ...

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NYC Uses Greenspace At Schools For Community Playgrounds & Stormwater Management



The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has partnered with the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to create multipurpose green spaces throughout the city. The most recent project completed by the team is a playground at Bushwick’s J.H.S. 162, which will not only serve as a community park, but also aid in absorbing rainfall and reducing pollution. Together the DEP and TPL will work to open 40 school playgrounds which will feature infrastructure to capture stormwater and prevent combined sewer overflow (CSO). During periods of heavy rainfall the city’s sewer system can become flooded with rainwater which when combined with wastewater, can produce CSO and pollute local waterways. “Working with JHS 162 students and Bushwick neighbors to create a fun place to ...

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New Music Video ‘Salta, Salta’ Inspires Kids to Jump & Dance Their Way to Better Health!



Opportunities to get kids up and moving exist at schools, parks, and even at home. Sometimes all you need is a little music and inspiration! This new music video, Salta, salta (jump, jump), which provides Latino kids and their families with a culturally relevant and engaging opportunity to stay fit, launched via YouTube, November 3, 2014. "When the family exercises together it teaches the kids that being active is fun," said singer and songwriter Andrés Mauricio Salguero in a Facebook post. Salguero is the founder of Uno, dos, tres con Andres a program that combines early music education with Latino culture, all while getting kids singing, shaking, learning Spanish, and dancing to the sound of traditional Latin dances.  According to the Uno, dos, tres con ...

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First Ever Trails Stewardship Summit for Youth To Be Held In Mississippi



The Heritage Trails Partnership of the Mississippi Gulf Coast will be hosting its first ever Youth Trails Stewardship Summit on November 21, 2014.  Youth, ages 16 to 24, are invited to attend the summit where they will discuss ways to help students re-connect with the outdoors. At the meeting they will also be provide input on how they might be able to expand on existing plans for the Mississippi Coastal Heritage Trail, a 100+ mile multi-use path trail that will link Louisiana to Alabama along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In previous years, a group of youth representing Mississippi and Alabama attended an Outdoor Nation Summit. Upon returning in 2012, that same group organized a retreat where they mapped out ways to get more youth connected with nature. One of the ideas that came ...

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‘Let’s Go! Gulf Coast’ Launches 5-2-1-0 Campaign in Jackson & Harrison County Mississippi 



Partners hope to bring healthy changes to the youth of Mississippi by working together as part of a new childhood obesity prevention coalition. The initiative led by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Youth Health Coalition will work to reduce childhood obesity in Jackson County and east Harrison County as part of an obesity prevention campaign called Let's Go! Gulf Coast. So far, coalition partners include representatives from Gulf Coast Health Educators, the Mississippi Gulf Coast YMCA, Singing River Health Systems and the Salvation Army Kroc Center. The Let's Go! Gulf Coast campaign which was inspired by the nationally-recognized program Let's Move!, will serve to get children to follow the 5-2-1-0 guide: eat 5 of more fruits/vegetables per day limit recreational screen ...

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‘Por Tu Familia’ Program Brings Fitness Bootcamp to Latino Families in Denver



Latino families in Denver are coming together to get fit with the help of the American Diabetes Association's Por Tu Familia (for your family) program. The program offers a free fitness boot camp every Tuesday and Thursday, at the Rude Recreation Center in efforts to prevent obesity. Because obesity is a risk factor in the development of Type II Diabetes, and Latinos are disproportionately affected by obesity, programs like this seek to get the whole family involved. In a CBS Denver news story, Julissa Soto, a director of programs, with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) said: “We certainly approach families. We don’t only approach the kids we approach the whole family.” Through the program, Jeovani Solis, a teenager who was once told he was pre-diabetic, was able ...

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GAVA Brings Parks, Healthy Food & Play to the Community of Dove Springs In Austin, TX



Members of the Go! Austin/Vamos! Austin (GAVA) grassroots initiative are making a difference for families living in Austin's Dove Springs community---a predominantly Latino  area of southeast Austin with historically high childhood obesity rates. In just two years, the group has managed to bring healthy changes to local parks, corner stores, grocery stores and schools. Some of the group's accomplishments include getting: A New multi-age playscape; Park improvements; An open gym pilot program; A zumba program; and Healthier options at corner stores Read more about this change here. See a presentation with information from one of GAVA's public health committee meeting ...

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YMCA’s New ‘Y-MVP Teen Fitness Challenge’ Helps Teens In NYC Get Fit!



In New York city, teens are getting fit with the help of the YMCA's Y-MVP Teen Fitness Program. The program works to increase levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity by using an on-line incentive-based app and gamification to help teens get a full 60 minutes of daily physical activity. According to a Carib news article, youth who participated in the program increased their physical activity at the Y by 36%. In addition to receiving instruction from a trained coach, the Y-MVP program equips participants with the knowledge and skills they need to develop their own fitness routines.  Every lesson is designed to be aligned with the state of New York's standards on physical education. Participants meet as a small class  and take on fitness "quests." At the end of each ...

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