Annamaria King

28 April 2014
King 1

Get With It
Target Group and Needs Assessment
According to the Center for Disease Control 12.5 million children between the ages of 2-
19 are obese in the United States. The obesity epidemic has tripled over the last 30 years. Studies
show that less than half of all adults in the United States meet the physical activity guidelines.
Based on the logic that active children become active adults, this problem is stemming from an
inactive childhood. Statistics show that obese children are also more likely to become obese
adults. The National Survey for Childrens Health reports that in West Virginia alone, 1 out of 3
children are considered overweight or obese. These children are between the 85th and 95th
percentile for body mass index. (CDC, 2012)
Childhood obesity has many negative effects on the body. Obese children are more likely
to have high blood pressure as well as high cholesterol. Studies show that 70% of obese children
have at least one cardiovascular disease issue and nearly half of those individuals had two. These
children are also at a higher risk of diabetes. Obese children are at a much higher risk for
breathing problems such as asthma and sleep apnea. Ultimately these children also have a greater
risk for social problems including discrimination and poor self-esteem. (CDC, 2012)
The most common of the behaviors among obese children is a sedentary lifestyle. With
the vast amount of technology today, many children are plugged into a multitude of gaming and
entertainment systems verses going outside to play. The familys socioeconomic status also plays
a role in whether or not these children have access to healthy foods. (Ogden, 2012)


King 2

Goals and Objectives
Get With It is a program targeting secondary youth in Kanawha County, specifically,
Nitro High School. This program is designed to encourage and support physical activity and
better nutrition in order for students to reach and maintain an ideal health status and benefit to
the fullest from their educational experiences. This proposal is an effort to combat the health
issue of childhood obesity targeting high school aged teens in an effort to curb the trends of the
nation and of the state of West Virginia.
Get With It will educate individuals of the health risks involved with obesity and offer
advice on how to improve overall health and well-being. Participants will be assigned
pedometers and educated on smart phone applications they can use to help track their progress.
In the event a student does not have access to a smart phone or IPod, applications such as My
Fitness Pal can be accessed on school computers. Paper charts will be given to the students to
help them track their efforts until able to access a computer.
Objectives
To increase physical activity in students by 20% within the first school year.
To increase the amount of fruits and vegetables students consume weekly by 5 servings
within the first school year.
To decrease the amount of total body fat in students by 30% within the first school year.
To increase the amount of healthy home cooked meals consumed weekly by 5 within the
first school year.


King 3

Program Plan
Get With It will be implemented in Nitro High School as a pilot program to eventually
spread into Kanawha County and then throughout the entire state of West Virginia. The program
will be comprised of multiple school staff members as well as outside professionals in the field
of nutrition and health improvement services. The core of the program will be launched as a
student organization.
Health and Physical Education
The current requirement for secondary students is one credit or one semester of each
Health and Physical Education. Get With It will be the supplemental encouragement that
students need to continue being active and practicing good nutrition. The program will work
hand in hand with Health and Physical Educators. The two part-time faculty support members
will ideally be Health and Physical Educators. Students involved in the program will be provided
technology and support to ensure the most positive experience. Details are listed under the
budget details.
Nutrition Services
Weekly Get With It meetings will include healthy snacks. The program will also work
closly with the school cafeteria to ensure the healthiest of options each day. Easy to read
nutrition labels and serving suggestions for students will also be implemented. Through Health
Fairs and monthly events, students will be able to access dietitians and educational seminars in
order to supplement nutrition education.
Counseling Services
King 4

The part-time faculty members will serve as immediate counselors for the students
weekly. The public school system already employs counselors and school psychologists. The
part-time faculty members will be an immediate resource for students but also have the ability to
direct students to the appropriate help needed.
Safe School Environment
In order to ensure a safe school environment, Get With It will adhere to Nitro High
Schools Emergency Action Plan. When utilizing school property for events the proper safety
procedures and protocol will be followed. Students involved will all be provided access to health
screenings during the Spring Health Fair and determined physically able to participate within
group activities.
Health Promotion
Participants will have access to personal trainers as well as dietitians. As mentioned
before as well as in the budget plan, health fairs and education seminars will also be means of
health promotion. Students and their families will be provided with educational material
promoting healthy choices.
Health communication strategies used will include flyers, social media pages, and public
service announcements. Advertising flyers would be distributed during school or at
extracurricular activities. Social media pages would be used to showcase activities, as well as
keep members informed of the upcoming events. Morning announcements at the school will
remind students of meetings and advertise the program.
King 5

Once the program begins to gain interest, elections will be held to obtain student council
positions within the group. These students will be utilized in program planning and provide
insight for the needs and wants of the students of Nitro High School. Members will pair up to
create support systems for one another in their journey of health and wellness.
In the beginning months of the program students current BMI will be measured and
physicals will be conducted by outside sources in order to ensure the students participation in
activities is appropriate. This will also allow for accurate research and evaluation at the end of
the year. Students will also be given surveys to gage the amount of fruits and vegetables they are
consuming weekly.
This program is being implemented into a school system making it a prime opportunity to
educate students. In order to effectively educate active members of Get With It, several health
education strategies will be implemented. Get With It will host healthy eating seminars,
physical activity workshops, and weekly meetings. One of the ultimate goals is to have monthly
healthy eating seminars. To jump start the program, Get With It would begin small with one a
semester. Second, Get With It will host physical activity seminars. These seminars would feature
personal trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, or physicians. Students, parents, and faculty
would be welcome to the seminars to learn more about creative ways to remain active. Weekly
meetings will allow students to gather and discuss progress and struggles. This is probably one of
the most important strategies because it will allow students to remain engaged in the program as
well as motivate them to continue.
A few policy and enforcement strategies would take some time to implement. The plan is
to start small, communicating with physical educators encouraging them to incorporate some of
King 6

the programs ideas into their lessons. Eventually educators would advocate for longer activity
time for students. Lastly, the program would encourage increased physical education times in
schools.
Community I nvolvement
This program will afford the community several opportunities to participate. One of the
largest undertakings of Get With It, will be a community health fair. The program will pair with
the school and community hosting a health fair where area doctors, health insurance
representatives, colleges, and area fitness centers will set up as vendors and answer individual
questions. Area nursing assistance will be present checking blood pressure.
Mobilizing support of this program will be a challenge. The plan is to encourage local
business to support the program. The Community Health Fair project will ideally host local
physicians, chiropractors, personal trainers, dietitians, insurance companies, and local
universities just to name a few. This will give the community an opportunity to communicate
with these individuals not only expanding their business but increasing the health of the
community. Something this vast will need promotional support.
A few smaller yet effective intervention strategies to be implemented will directly impact
the students individually. As mentioned before members of Get With It will pair up and mentor a
newer member. Since the program is new itself, leaders will be identified within the group and
eventually will be appointed as mentors. Another strategy is personal logging and journaling.
Students will be educated on the various applications such as My Fitness Pal, a free application
where students can log activity and nutrition.
Personnel, Materials, and Budget
King 7

Get With It will employ two staff members from Nitro High School as program site
supervisors. These positions will be considered part-time and aside from their current positions
as teachers within the school. Each of these positions will be paid $2,000.00 per year, or
$1,000.00 each semester. Their roles will include communication between Get With It
volunteers and staff as well as hosting weekly meetings. These individuals will facilitate student
elections and aid with student logging.
In addition to these positions a dietitian will be paid to come in once a month for healthy
eating seminars and question answer events. An agreement will be reached at the initiation of the
program with a local dietitian; the individual will be paid $40 per hour for their service. Each
seminar will last approximately 90 minutes. We will host 8 of these events costing the program
$480.00.
Get With It will also employ two part time personal trainers to come in bi weekly to
work with students during after school workout sessions. The initial meeting will be 2 hours to
get the students started on program plans and the bi-monthly meetings will last 1 hour. The
trainers will cost the program $80.00 per hour per employee. The first meeting will require both
trainers. Costing the program $320.00. The bi-monthly meetings will only require one trainer
each session costing $80.00 each session. For the entire year this will cost the program
$1,600.00.
The program will host two health fairs during the inaugural year featuring local
professionals. These individuals will consist of local physicians, personal trainers, nutritionists,
dietitians, chefs, and much more. The entire community will be welcome at these events to see
what Get With It is all about. This will be a great time for the students to share with their
King 8

community and families their progress as well. The families of the students involved with get
With It will be our VIPs. These Health Fairs will have budgets of $1,000.00. The space for the
event will be donated. The budget will include healthy snacks for those in attendance,
entertainment for children and students, and pay for a guest speaker at each event. The vendors
will come on a volunteer basis. During the Health Fairs we will host corn hole tournaments to
raise money for the program. This money will go directly into the budget and cover costs of
various needs.
Healthy snacks will be provided at our weekly meetings since they will take place during
lunch. The budget per week will be $100.00. Over the course of the school year we will meet
four times a month for 8 months. This will cost the program $3,200.00 per school year.
Office supplies will be utilized for advertising and multiple forms of intervention
strategies over the course of the school year. The estimated cost of these supplies will be
$600.00. This will include ink usage, paper, pens, staples, etc.
Another expense for the Get With It program will be pedometers. Branders.com
provides pedometer with your logo printed on the face of the product for under $2.00 a piece if
purchasing more than 50. Since this program is in its inaugural year, this is a great option. These
pedometers are relatively inexpensive and will be easier to assign to students without fear of a
financial loss. Students will use these pedometers to track their steps in order to measure
progress throughout the school year. The first order placed will be for 50 pedometers at $1.62 a
piece costing the program $81.00 before tax. Using the schools tax exempt number will save the
program $4.61. Shipping will cost the program $7.00. Total expense $88.00 for 50 pedometers.
As the program grows at Nitro High School, we will order more branded pedometers.
King 9

Each nine weeks students will weigh in and we will total loss of body fat. The student
making the most progress each of these progress reports will receive a prize. The Budget for
each of these prizes will be $100.00 costing the program $400.00 for the duration of the year.
Two of these prizes will be Fitbit Flexes. The other two prizes will be $50.00 Dicks Sporting
Goods gift cards paired with a workout duffle filled with smaller prizes valued at $50.00. Each of
the 4 potential prizes will be valued at $100.00.
Staff Salary Total
Part Time Faculty $1000.00 per semester $2,000.00
Part Time Faculty $1,000.00 per semester $2,000.00
Dietitian $40.00 per hour $480.00
Personal Trainer $80.00 per hour $800.00
Personal Trainer $80.00 per hour $800.00
Guest Speaker $200.00 per event $400.00*
*Guest Speaker expense is in the Health Fair Budget of $1,000.00 per event.
Expense Total Cost
Health Fair $1,000.00*
Health Fair $1,000.00*
Weekly snacks $3,200.00
Office Supplies $600.00
Pedometers $88.00
Prize(Fitbit) $100.00
Prize (fitbit) $100.00
King 10

Prize (Duffle) $100.00
Prize (duffle) $100.00


Health Fair xs 2
Guest Speaker $200.00
Entertainment $200.00
Healthy Refreshments $500.00
Miscellaneous Expenses $100.00


Evaluation
Evaluation tools will be utilized throughout every stage of development of Get With It.
The feedback provided from these evaluations will assist in making adjustments where needed
and simplifying the program as much as possible. The stages of evaluation will be during
planning, first year, second year, and after year five.
The planning evaluation will take place during the developmental stage of Get With It.
A minimal amount of resources will be needed to conduct this evaluation. The idea at this point
is to take into consideration the stakeholders interests, questions and concerns.
The one year evaluation will reflect upon the current progress of the program and assess
the implementation of stakeholder interest. As the program will be in its inaugural year, there
King 11

will indeed be obstacles to overcome. This portion of evaluation will help developers improve
years to come.
Two years into the program Get With It ideally will be up and running smoothly.
Surveys will be conducted to assess the stakeholders original interests and re-evaluate the
programs goals. At this stage we will be looking at the original goals and objectives and judge if
they are being met and if necessary what we can do to improve and refocus.
A five year evaluation will be completed in a similar format as the two year. Again this
stage will focus on the goals, and consider new stakeholders interest. The original participants
will have all graduated and new will begin. It is probable that new ideals will form and the
program will evolve to reflect the needs of new members.
Evaluation Time Line
Time Stage Resources
Planning Development Minimal: Surveys, Forums,
Meetings, etc.
1 year Implementation Moderate: Surveys,
Professional Development,
model evaluation
2 years Running Minimal: Surveys, Forums,
Meetings, etc.
5 Years Running/Regeneration Moderate: Surveys,
Professional Development,
King 12

model evaluation
Taking into consideration stakeholder interest and concerns, Get With It plans multiple
activities throughout the school year. The area of activities will need to be evaluated in order to
assure we are meeting the original goals and objectives. A sample evaluations survey is
presented below.


King 13

References
Ogden, C. L. PhD, Carroll, M. D.MSPH, Kit, B. K. MD, MPH, & Flegal, K. M. PhD. Prevalence
of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. The Journal of the
American Medical Association, 311, 1.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trends in the Prevalence of Extreme Obesity
Among US Preschool-Aged Children Living in Low-Income Families, 1998-2010.
JAMA. 2012; 308 (24): 2563-2565
Children and Teens Overweight or Obese By Gender. (2014, January 1). KIDS COUNT Data
Center. Retrieved , from http://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/27-children-and-teens-
overweight-or-obese-bygender