Youth Engagement in Sports: Collaboration to Improve Adolescent Physical Activity and Nutrition (YES Initiative)

Description

The YES Initiative seeks to support projects that address the HHS priority to expand youth participation in sports and encourage regular physical activity, especially for youth populations with lower rates of sports participation and communities with limited access to athletic facilities or recreational areas. YES Initiative applicants should address unhealthy physical activity and nutrition behaviors in racial/ethnic minority and socio-economically disadvantaged youth, including specifically girls, and provide opportunities to learn skills and gain experiences that contribute to more positive lifestyles and enhance their capacity to make healthier life choices. The YES Initiative intends to identify effective collaborations and/or existing community organizational partnerships that aim to improve physical activity and nutrition by increasing sports participation of racial/ethnic minority and/or socio-economically disadvantaged youth, including specifically girls. YES Initiative projects will develop and implement sports fitness programs based on successful evidenced based practices for youth engagement, using experimental design, and result in the identification of model sustainable strategies that increase participation in range of physical activities that support a healthy lifestyle and improve the overall health among youth who, at baseline, do not meet current physical activity guidelines. YES applicants must propose to implement programs that will serve at a minimum 130 males and/or females in 6th, 7th and/or 8th grades over the course of two years. Proposals must describe, using geographic indicators and data from representative probability-based samples surveys or other representative population data, the demographic characteristics of the populations to be served by the project, including race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status and geographic location. Each applicant under the YES Initiative must serve as the lead agency for the project, responsible for its implementation and management; and serve as the fiscal agent for the federal grant if awarded. The applicant organization must represent a collaborative partnership. Applicants for funding will be expected to meet each of the following expectations. Programmatic Implement sports programming that provides youth with an opportunity to sample different types of sports activities. Implement sports programming that allows for youth of all ability levels to equally participate and does not require “try-outs” or performance based exclusion of participants. Implement nutrition programming that facilitates healthy eating habits. Schedule regular programming that allows for youth to complete at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity during programming. Offer practice/play experiences that are designed to match the age, ability, development needs, and fitness level of the participating youth. Administer baseline and periodic assessments of youth participation in sports programming, amount of physical activity, and consumption of dark green, orange, and red vegetables, whole fresh fruit and sugar-sweetened beverages. Evaluate the impact of the intervention using experimental design.

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