Community, school, and city officials worked together to develop a shared use agreement to use school grounds to create a community park at Sky Harbour Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas, with a playground, exercise equipment, trails, and an amphitheater that is open after school hours. The effort illustrates how city officials, a non-profit organization, a school district, a P.E. coach, students, parents, and members from the community can work together to bring important improvements to the physical environment that can increase local options for physical activity. Each of these stakeholders saw the need for more play space in the community and supported a shared use agreement to guarantee access to Sky Harbour’s recreational facilities on school grounds after school hours. From ...
MHP (formerly known as Migrant Health Promotion) and Alice Independent School District partner to create a shared use agreement to make school-owned recreational areas—gyms, playgrounds, parks, and walking trails—available to the public after school hours, adding a much-needed physical activity option in a largely Latino population, at high risk of obesity and related health complications.
EMERGENCE
Awareness: Robert De Leon, a former program director at MHP—an organization that has provided leadership in health promotion, program development, and advocacy for migrant farmworkers and their families and other isolated communities since 1983—was increasingly concerned about high obesity rates in South Texas. In 2011, MHP applied for a Texas Health Initiative’s Community ...
In Orange County, Calif., the "Latino health paradox" is evident. Despite fewer resources and less access to regular medical care than wealthier white residents, low-income Latino immigrants have a longer average life expectancy and are more likely to have healthy birth outcomes, the Voice of OC reports in a two-part series. But once in the U.S., those health advantages erode. Research indicates that the children of immigrants have even poorer health regarding certain cancer, diabetes, birth outcomes and heart disease. Many reasons cause this decline in health, including eating a less nutritious diet as immigrants and their children "acculturate" to American cuisine. About 50 percent of students in Stanton, Santa Ana and Anaheim, Calif., are overweight or obese. Local ...
To raise the awareness of colorectal and cervical cancers and increase prevention and early detection among Latinos, the University Health System (UHS) in San Antonio, Texas, has produced several public service announcements (PSAs) in both Spanish and English as part of its A Su Salud San Antonio campaign. The PSAs are being aired across the region and are now on the UHS YouTube page. Here is one of the cervical cancer PSAs in English and another in Spanish. Here is one of the colorectal cancer PSAs in English and another in ...
Caesar Valdillez loves where he lives—the Southtown neighborhood in San Antonio (63% Latino). He grew up in the neighborhood and even moved back after he finished college, hoping to meet like-minded environmentalists to improve the neighborhood and sustain it for many years to come. But he noticed Southtown lacked the healthy food options it needed to be a truly healthy community. “Our neighborhood does not have any reasonable grocery store in the area, especially with fresh produce and herbs,” he said. He decided to help.
Southtown Lacks Healthy Options
In 2010, on a routine neighborhood walk, Valdillez stumbled upon the South Presa Community Garden. It was largely neglected and overgrown. He was “immediately intrigued,” though, when he saw at least a ...
After years of trying to land a new park, residents of Earlimart, Calif., can now celebrate the success of a shared use agreement and soon-to-be-built 4-acre park. Residents living in the small rural community of Earlimart, Calif., lacked outdoor spaces for the physical activity they needed to develop and maintain healthy lifestyles and weights. The Earlimart School District’s superintendent responded to this need by trying an experiment. She had the custodial staff at one school leave the school gate open. Word got around that the school’s gate had been left open—soon the school’s field was filled with local residents. This experiment ultimately led to a change in the school district’s policy, which allows Tulare county residents from non-affiliated groups to use the school ...
Edison High School students, families and community members partner with school officials to open school’s new lighted track for a regular walking program. EMERGENCE
Awareness: Toward the beginning of her sophomore year, Edison High School student Brianna Reynosa began to notice there had been some changes to her school’s lunch menu.
“It started with the new lunch menu. When I noticed the changes in the menu, I asked [Edison Principal] Mr. [Charles] Munoz about it and he began to tell me about how obesity was a problem in the community, and how he wanted the students at Edison to be healthy,” Brianna said. Before, Brianna hadn’t really stopped to think about the consequences that come with making unhealthy lifestyle choices. She began to think about her ...
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn announced that he is considering the idea of a penny-per-once tax on sugary drinks to a mayoral forum sponsored by the Seattle Parks Foundation in late September 2013. The mayor, who has not proposed this idea formally to city council yet, says the money could be used to fund park expansions and maintenance. Studies show that Latino kids consume more sugary drinks than the national average, but a change in the cost of those drinks could reduce kids' consumption of extra ...
A new website, notmykids.net, offers healthier recipes, tips on how to eat healthier, and ideas about how to help families be more physically active, to promote healthy lifestyle changes and prevent obesity. The site is produced by the California Department of Public Health’s Network for a Healthy ...
