The Healthy Kids Project
The Healthy Kids Project (HKP) aims to promote healthier habits among our families, thereby improving the health and well-being of the Arab American community around Metro Detroit. HKP addresses children’s health risk factors (behavioral, emotional, and cultural) in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, environmental health and mental health/well-being through an active, hands-on approach. The Healthy Kids Project at ACCESS hopes to provide community members with the knowledge and skills needed to reduce obesity and other chronic health conditions and lead long, healthy and happy lives.
The Healthy Kids Project (HKP) is
a family-based health promotion program funded through support from local
foundations.
Program Goals
- Developing stronger nutritional, physical
activity, environmental and mental health lifestyle habits among 5-10-year-old
Arab American youth
- Increase understanding of the health dangers of obesity & a sedentary lifestyle (poor diet, lack of exercise, TV watching, etc).
- Promote healthier habits among Arab American children & their parents by reducing existing & preventing new risk factors.
- Improve awareness and knowledge of good nutrition and a healthy diet for children and families.
- Improve access to healthy fruits and vegetables for low-income families.
- Increase awareness of the benefits of daily exercise and physical activity, for children and adults.
- Provide increased opportunities for physical activity.
- Increase awareness of environmental risk factors that affect children’s health in the home and school environments.
- Improve community knowledge of what we can do to improve the health of our environment
- Improve awareness and knowledge of mental health (what it means, how it impacts children’s and adult’s health, etc) and the resources available.
Program Services
HKP engages the community through:
- Home visits, holistic health promotion curricula,
anti-bullying curricula, educational presentations, hands-on workshops,
community gardening, and other related physical activity opportunities
- Parents are highly encouraged, and sometimes
required, to participate in various HKP activities, thereby modeling for our
youth the importance of practicing healthy habits through a lifetime
- Screen for overweight (through Body-Mass Index/BMI), blood pressure, and other health indicators for children (ages 5-10 years old) and their parents.
- 8 week Healthy Kids Project curriculum covering: Nutrition and food preparation as a family, Physical Activity, Mental Health & Well-being, Environmental Health, Fieldtrip to increase opportunities of physical activity and learning, Healthy Food Potluck Celebration and Certificate of Completion.
- 6 week Anti-Bullying Curriculum in schools in partnership with ACCESS Domestic Violence Prevention Program and the Child & Adolescent Health Center
- Presentations on children’s health for parents and children in mosques, churches, community center and schools.
- Keeping Kids Healthy Seminars
- Dispense and view bilingual educational materials on children’s health including Healthy Kids Educational DVD segments and the Healthy Families, Healthy Futures booklet of health information.
- School & Community Health Fairs for children and families
- Community gardening, providing participants the opportunity to be physically active together as they grow healthy fruits and vegetables.
- Partnership with the ACCESS Summer Youth Academy utilizing “In the Garden” and “Nature in our Neighborhoods” curricula.
- Support Safe Routes to Schools programming in school districts.
- Engage community members through Healthy Community Coalitions
Target Group/Client Base
5-10-year-old Arab American youth
Funding Source
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Literature
Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans
Healthy Families, Healthy Futures (English)
Healthy Families, Healthy Futures (Arabic)
Program Staff
Program Director Adnan Hammad, PhD
Program Coordinator Elizabeth Hughes, MPH
Health Educator Ola Saad, BS
Health Educator Jehad Najda, BS
Contact Person
Elizabeth Hughes, MPH Coordinator, Healthy Kids Project
ehughes@accesscommunity.org
(313) 216-2244
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