HANCI - Services - Changing Children's Lives

Changing Children's Lives through Changing School and Health Paradigms

This program fights obesity and its associated lifelong chronic disease for the children and adolescents of Niagara Falls through policy change at the Niagara Falls City School District and environmental change at community-based program sites.

The first policy-related activity will be to facilitate a review and revision of school nutrition policies.  The review will include nutrition menu content and vending machine content and access.

The second policy-related activity will be to assist with the pilot testing and possible implementation of Fitness Report Cards that include such measures as BMI, aerobic capacity and brief parental advisories.

HANCI will also work with community-based partners. The first step will be an adapted "Stop Light Diet" curriculum with parental engagement in community-based after-school programs. This curriculum was specifically designed for children ages 6-12 and has been successfully used by adolescents and adults.

The other intervention with the community-based after-school programs is to introduce an adapted "Adult Health and Development Program" (AHDP) with college student mentors. This adapted version, the "Fitness Buddy" program, will pair a college student mentor from Niagara University with a young person from a community-based organization to engage in non-competitive, structured physical activity on Saturdays.

For more information on this program, please contact Rev. Jimmy Rowe at 716-285-8224, extension 131.

Also see the NYS Health Foundation.