Is your school on the healthiest schools list? Healthier Generation is asking anyone who cares about healthy schools to join the Healthy Schools Program! They hope to help build healthier schools by giving out free tools to help all kids enjoy physical activity breaks, help schools find healthy ways to fundraise and starting walking clubs. They also give parents and teachers healthy ways to reward kids, as well as free recipes. They even offer all materials in Spanish! To learn more about how you can play a part in creating healthier schools, visit ...
Louise Gooche, a retired nursing professor and director of nursing education from Durahm Technical college, founded Durham Divas 'n Dude, a senior citizen cheer squad in February 2004. Gooche was an aerobics instructor at the YMCA of the Triangle, in Raleigh, North Carolina (10.7% Latino). After seeing senior cheerleaders perform at the North Carolina Senior Games, Gooche posted a sign-up sheet at the "Y" and volunteered to coach a cheer squad. The "Y" agreed to sponsor the team. The Divas volunteer their time and services to various "Y" programs and the "Y" provides them with a place to rehearse twice a week, as well as uniforms, sweat suits, pom-poms, megaphones, and flags. "I love to perform for the elderly in the nursing homes, and bring a little joy to their hearts, ...
What can community gardens bring? Not only can community gardens help people grow healthy food, it can also build and connect a community. In Los Angeles, Calif. (48.4% Latino) the Los Angeles Community Garden Council (LACGC) is helping to manage over 40 community gardens for local communities. Julie Beals, the executive director of LACGC explained to SeedStock, that the gardens have helped lower body mass index (BMI) of residents where the gardens are and have helped reduce crime. Beals also explained that members are getting more exercise, property values are increasing with the gardens as well. The LACGC also offers nutrition classes, helping members of the gardens learn about the health benefits of what they are growing. Latino communities need access to healthier ...
Local and national events have pushed the subject of race, equality, and equity to the top of the city of Ashville, NC’s (6% Latino population) political agenda. In a response to widespread public acclaim, city officials have put forth an ambitious $433,000 initiative to establish an Office of Equity and Diversity as well as a plan for a racial disparity study of their community. Ashville’s City Council will review the plan, which is set to cost the city $350,000, during meetings in September 2016. The newly funded Office of Equity and Diversity will cost the city $110,000 this year and nearly $150,000 annually going forward. Staff have yet to be hired for the new department. “Statistics and other evidence can be used to show decisions and practices have discriminatory ...
Latino and Black children and young adults with mental health issues are half as likely as Whites to get mental health care, according to a new study, the Compton Herald reports. The study, which examined more than 108,000 Latino, Black, and White children and young adults, found that racial/ethnic minorities got a lot less psychiatric care. That includes fewer visits to psychiatrists, social workers, and psychologists, despite consistent rates of mental illness across racial/ethnic groups. Latino and Black youth also received less substance abuse and mental health counseling. Study researchers, led by Dr. Lyndonna Marrast of Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine in New York, indicate this could play a role "in why children from these communities end up getting expelled from ...
Latinos are no longer the fastest-growing population in United States. The growth and dispersion of the Latino population has slowed since 2007, when the Great Recession started, immigration from Latin America cooled and Latino fertility rates began to fall, according to a new report by Pew Research Center. The U.S. Latino population still grew annually by 2.8% on average from 2007-2014, but that is much slower than its 4.4% growth rate from 2000-2007 and 5.8% in the 1990s. Asians now are the fastest rising U.S. population, with a 3.4% growth rate since 2007. Latino population dispersion, while still evident, also is slowing. For example, the share of U.S. counties with at least 1,000 Hispanics grew 8 percentage points from 38% to 46% from 2000-2007, but just 4 percentage ...
A new analysis of federal data details the serious and widespread problem of chronic absenteeism in public schools. It has long been a belief that skipping one or two days of school in a month has little impact on a student’s academic success has been proven statically incorrect. According to the new study entitled “Preventing Missed Opportunity,” missing just two days in a month can “expose kids to a cascade of academic setbacks,” ranging from lower reading and math scores in third grade to higher risks of dropping out of high school. The data studied showed that the problem of chronic absenteeism was both widespread and concentrated. More than 6 million students were found to be chronically absent and half attended just 4% of the nation’s school districts and only 12% ...
How can food banks work with local farmers and provide sustainability for local farms and people in need of fresh healthy foods? Partnering with local farmers, Mainers Feeding Mainers program, part of the Good Shepard Food Bank of Maine (17.6% Latino) has started an innovative way to capture and provide fresh foods to over 37,000 people. How do they make it happen? The simple system and social mission to help those in need have nutritious fresh fruits and vegetables have helped the program partner with over 30 local farms throughout the state since 2010. Over 60,000 children are suffering in Maine from food insecurity, explained Kristen Maile in the programs web page video. Maile went on to explain that it doesn't matter what the vegetables look like, or their shape or size, ...
A new book by mathematician Cathy O’Neil details the ways that math is being “used” to create (both intentionally and unintentionally) further racial inequities and inequalities in the United States. In a new book entitled Weapons of Math Destruction, O’Neil shows how algorithms and data, which are used in everything from targeted advertising to insurance rates to police presence, are often being used against minorities. “I worried about the separation between technical models and real people, and about the moral repercussions of that separation,” O’Neil wrote in the book. In her book, O’Neil’s models all use proxies as stand-ins for what people are actually trying to measure. For example, police officers analyze zip codes to deploy patrols, employers also use ...
