  New grant impacts tribal youth by promoting active lifestyles
(November 2010) The Pembroke Boys & Girls club of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina has partnered with the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNC-P) by way of a grant promoting an active lifestyle.
The $20,000 grant will be used to educate children of the club about the importance of incorporating exercise into their daily routines. “I really like the program, a lot of our youth are either over weight or have diabetes within their family,” stated Youth Services Manager Verdia Deese, “the children are loving it and it fits with our program in meeting one of our five core objectives.”
BRAVE Club, Body Mass and Resiliency Assessment through Vigorous Exercise, is geared toward increasing activity levels and changing habits or lifestyles that are centered around minimal activity and eating. “We want them to know what to eat and not to supersize everything,” said Aquatics Director and adjunct professor PJ Smith.
According to the Recreation Management Coordinator, Dr. Wooten, the grant came from the National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD) which supports and conducts research on topics related to the health of children, adults, families and populations.
Kindergarten through 12th grade meet every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday at the Odum Baptist Home For Children on Prospect Road in Pembroke. The program is set up in four cycles. The first cycle is elementary students, the second cycle is middle school, the third cycle is high school and the fourth cycle will be a combination of the first three cycles. The sessions will include a variation of activities such as tumbling, dance, yoga, tennis, aerobics and pilates. “We want to offer something that is outside of the traditional realm of public school sports,” commented Dr. Wooten.
“It doesn’t matter if the child is an athlete or not, we just want them to become active,” said Dr. Wooten. Along with physical activity the children will be taught resiliency skills and coping mechanisms to that when something goes wrong in their life they will be able to bounce back and overcome obstacles. Skills such as creativity, building relationships, developing a sense of humor and being aware of others around them will be taught. Nutritional sessions will be integrated into the program as well by teaching the children, at age appropriate levels, how make health snacks with food that is already easily available and affordable within the home. “One example would be peanut butter spread on a banana with raisins sprinkled on top, it makes a healthy snack full of protein,” said Dr. Wooten.
The sessions will be taught by Brittany Berrier who is currently a grad student in the Health and Physical Education Department at UNC-P. According to Dr. Wooten, the program is open to any Boys & Girls Club member whose parent gives them permission to participate. |
