Exercise Intervention Program

Exercise and being physically active is very crucial for today's youth. If kids do not participate in athletics or other after school activities, it can be very tempting

for them to go home, sit down in front of the TV and go to work on a bag of potato chips. It is very important that schools try to encourage their students to be

active, and it would be ideal if some of these activities could be done at school outside of a regular physical education class. This intervention program will

involve low income junior high students, and the main goal is to have fun while being physically active.

Rationale

The main purpose of this intervention program is to allow for low-income junior high students, the chance to be involved in physical activities free of charge. Low-income students are sometimes at the highest risk for obesity and inactivity due to their financial constraints. Due to these financial constraints, they unable to afford healthy alternatives, and would rather go to the local fast food restaurant to order off the dollar menu. Also their financial constraints will likely not allow for a gym membership, and therefore the chances are high that these types of students are highly inactive. Money should not be an issue when it comes to being physically fit, but in today's world it seems as if money is involved in everything. The purpose is to make the environment fun for all the kids where money is no issue what so ever. There will be no registration fees, or having to pay to buy a t-shirt. The kids will be here to have a fun time with their classmates and also get in a workout while they're at it. It will be important for this program to have a high turnout so more kids are getting the chance to be physically active. In order to maximize this, the program will be held at the school gymnasium after school. This id important because all the kids will already be at the school building and therefore it would be more tempting for them to give it a try.

Goals

Goals are important for any intervention program. The goals are important, because this will keep things organized, and the kids deserve an organized, fun environment. It is also important not only to have physical goals for the program, but psychological goals as well. Junior high can be a very tough time for a lot of kids with it being right around puberty. It is important for a program that does not single out kids, and to do anything that could possible hurt ones self-esteem. Here are the goals for the Intervention.

Goal 1 - To create an active environment while having fun. This intervention program will not be a boot camp, because if you make the kids work really hard without having any fun it is very likely that they will never show up again. The main ingredient for making this environment fun will be active games. These games will make it fun, and it will keep the kids active.

Goal 2 - Increase enjoyment of physical activity. Kids can sometimes be very hard to convince of the benefits of physical activity. This program will make the kids realize that being physically active does not always have to be hard work that no one usually looks forward too. It could be something as playing a pick-up waffle ball game after school with friends. This goal is important, because the kids need to walk away after this program knowing that you do not have to get on a treadmill for 30 minutes a day in order to be healthy. Adding the fun element will increase the enjoyment.

Goal 3 - Offers a free venue for physical activity. With the intervention program being for low-income students, it is very important not to make money a barrier for the opportunity to participate in the program. This program will be totally free of charge, and the kids and parents will not have to pay anything to participate. With no fee for the program, numbers should rise.

Goal 4 - Improve the self-esteem and self-belonging of the kids. Being a junior high student can be a rough time, and it is very important to make sure that the kids feel good about themselves. The program will give kids an outlet to be with their classmates and possibly develop numerous new relationships. As the participants become more comfortable with each other, it will help with their self-esteem, knowing they have friends that are just like them, playing the same game, and having fun while doing it. This is also an important goal because the kids will feel like they belong to something. The next day in the classroom they might very well tell one of their teachers about the big game they had the night before playing basketball, or how much fun they had with their friends playing a game of dodgeball. This program will make the kids feel they are a part of something that is genuine and fun.

Population

The participants of this intervention program are junior high students that come from low-income areas.

Intervention Program

This intervention program will meet Monday through Thursday after school for the length of the school year. Hopefully at the end of the school year the kids will really enjoy playing games to become physically active and it will continue to carry over on their own into the summer months. The kids will have plenty of free time in the summer, so hopefully some will get together and get some fun games going.

This program will be implemented by posting flyers around the school building, and also letting faculty and staff know about it so they can make announcements to their students. The main office will also be contacted for a possible announcement over the intercom system. The flyers will have good details about how the program will be a fun opportunity to make friends and play games.

The ultimate fitness goal from this program will be for the kids to want to be active after the program ends. With the program being a school year, this allows for ample time to allow for the kids to understand just how fun being physically active can be. Again, it will be important to make sure that the kids understand that being physically active does not mean running a mile or going for a 2-hour bike ride. The kids will hopefully carry over their enjoyment from the activities into the summer, and play with their friends.

The progress of the students will be kept by journal. The students will fill out a journal once a week on Thursday, and they will just write down in it what they liked about the week, and what they would want to do the next week. This will be a program that is going to be open to what the kids want to do, and this way a collective effort can be put together by the staff to make sure that kids enjoy the games being played. The journal will be kept simple, because the main purpose of the program is to come, play some games and have fun. It would be a bad thing if the kids would come to the program knowing they had to write a 1-page journal entry. This program will keep things simple and fun, and this is how the workers will know that the kids are completing the intervention program. The main point of the program is for the kids to have fun, and want to be physically active, so if this is happening, then the program is alive and well. Also attendance will be taken to assure that some of the kids are not skipping out too often.

The atmosphere for this program will be one of encouragement and praise. This is not at all like an athletic practice. Kids will not be evaluated on how they do, or even how hard they play the game. As long as they are out there having fun and moving around, then it makes it fun for everyone. Their will be certificates for everyone, congratulating them on having fun while being physically active. An end of the year pizza party would be held too as many pizza places allow discounts for school-like functions when large amounts of pizza are ordered. This would be a fun ending to a fun year, and allow for the kids to interact in a fun way other than playing games. You still have to let kids be kids, and a pizza party would be a perfect way to do it.

The psychological factors that will be followed are the child's self-esteem and how comfortable they are around others. It is important to realize once again, that being in junior high is stressful. So hopefully the program will allow the kids to build up some self-esteem and improve their confidence to make friends and be around others.

The workers needed for this program will be four. The ideal situation would be to hire 2 males and 2 females. These workers would be recruited from the faculty and staff from the junior high school. This is also a plus because it just gives the faculty/staff another chance to interact with their students.

Target Variables/Measurement

As was stated earlier, it will be important to make sure that the kids are having fun, showing up regularly, and improving the self-esteem and self-worth. These will be measured by the weekly journal entry to make sure that everyone is having a good time and feels good about what they are doing.

Funding

The funding will come from grants. The first grant that would be applied to is the Carol M. White Physical Education Program. This is basically an after school physical education program. With this grant the average new award is $300,000. This would be plenty of money to implement a fun program, pay the workers, and also possibly purchase new weight, exercise equipment for use by other students.

The 2^nd grant would be from the Farrer Endowment Foundation. The purpose of this grant is to primarily provide support for youth services and public libraries. The grant ranges from $500 all the way up to $10,000. This would not be as nice as the $300,000, but this is more relevant to the after school program.

The final grant would be from the General Mills Foundation/Corporate Contributions. This grant is out of Minneapolis, and supports organizations such as arts and culture, education, hunger, youth nutrition and recreation, disaster relief, human services, and minorities. This grant ranges from $5,000 to around $20,000.
With proper funding, and good numbers this program could really benefit low-income students. Not only will they have a blast being physically active, but they will also walk away knowing that you can have fun being physically fit, and it does not always have to be boring.