The%20Battle%20River%20Project

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The Battle River Project

• Year 1 Overview and Background
• January 30, 2008
• Camrose, AB

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WHAT is a blender?
an electric kitchen appliance with rotating
blades used for puréeing, liquefying, or finely
chopping. (Oxford Canadian Dictionary, 1998)
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What is the PURPOSE of a blender?
combine compatible ingredients to produce
something that tastes good! (Dougs Dictionary
of Mixology, 2007)
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WHAT is a school?
An institution for educating or giving
instruction, especially one for students under 19
years. (Oxford Canadian Dictionary, 1998)
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What is the PURPOSE of a school?
ensure that students attain the knowledge and
skills required for lifelong learning, work and
citizenship. (Alberta Education Business Plan
2006-2009)
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YOUTH MEETING PHYSICALACTIVITY GUIDELINES(60
min MVPA 5 days/wk)

Young Peoples Health in Context HBSC. WHO, 2004
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Nutrition?

• Children purchasing lunches at schools
• 39 more overweight
• 39 more obesity

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Measured Overweight Ages 2-17 years
CPHI. Promoting Health Weights. 2006.
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INDIVIDUAL
POPULATION
Energy Expenditure
I
T
Y
OBESE OR UNDERWT
O
P
R
E
V
Food intake Nutrient density
A
L
E
Source see Kumanyika Ann Rev Pub Health 2001
22293-308
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School based promotion of healthy eating and
active living
Pre-intervention
Post-intervention
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Social environment
Bullying
Friends
TV
Physical environment
teachers
Phys Ed?
Negative experiences
modeling
Lunches from home
School transport
Extra-curricular
Urban / Rural
vending machine
intramurals
Principal
social determinants
demographics
self esteem
nutrition
academics
School store
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School based promotion of healthy eating and
active living
Pre-intervention
Post-intervention
Practitioners work types of activities target
groups involvement planning collaboration and
partnerships barriers
What is REALLY going on here? HOW is the
intervention implemented? Give us something to do!
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Ever Active Schools

• A Health Promoting Schools approach
• to creating
• Healthy Active School Communities
• in Alberta

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Vision Alberta students live, learn and play in
healthy, active school communities. Mission
Statement The Ever Active Schools Program
facilitates the development of healthy children
and youth by fostering social and physical
environments that support healthy active school
communities.
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Health Promoting Schools
Instruction
home
community
school
Services/supports
Environment
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Health Promoting Schools

• A whole school approach where health promotion is
  addressed by all stakeholders over a long period
  of time through intense integration,
  coordination, and enhancements to
• Curriculum and teaching methods
• Social physical environments
• Family, school, and community partnerships and
  services

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Health Promoting Schools involve

• Champion(s) in school
• Facilitation of planning processes
• Evidence-based, promising practice
• Evaluation

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The Battle River Project

• Multi-level partnership
• Battle River School District
• Ever Active Schools
• East Central Health
• Funded by
• Albertas Active Living Strategy
• Alberta Healthy School Community Wellness Fund

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Key Question

• How can the school environment and health
  behaviors (healthy eating, active living and
  mental health) of children and youth be
  positively improved when a Health Promoting
  Schools model, the Ever Active Schools Program,
  is implemented with School District support?

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Theories

• Ecological Model (Bronfenbrenner, 1977 Kelly,
  1990 Sallis Owen, 1997)
• Individual
• Social
• Organizational
• Community
• Public policy
• Action Research (Smits, 1997 A.R. Guide for
  Alberta Teachers, 2000)
• Trigger
• Reflect
• Plan
• Action
• Data collection

Physical Environment
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Theory Justification

• Ecological Model
• Focus on Social and Organizational (micro-policy)
  to effect individual behaviours
• Trudeau Shepard (2005) school an effective
  setting to increase MVA in PE, extra-curricular,
  active transport and community facilities
• Veugelers Fitzgerald (2005) multi-leveled
  (micro-policy, social, organizational)
  intervention reduced overweight by 59 and
  obesity by 72
• Stewart-Brown (2006) overview of world-wide HPS
  (essentially ecological in structure) initiatives
  for effectiveness
• Physical Activity
• Nutrition
• Mental Health Promotion

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Theory Justification

• Action Research
• Focus on Social and Organizational (micro-policy)
  to effect individual
• Smits (1997) Action research is a form of
  theory and practice engaged with real life
  practical questions and issues (p. 282)
• Catelli, Padovano Costello (2000) role of
  collaboration to permit change and improvement at
  all levels with the goal being improvement (EAS,
  Schools, BRSD, RHA)
• Franks, et. al. (2007) lessons from CATCH,
  Planet Health and Not-On-Tobacco

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What it looks like

• Structure
• Partnership between EAS, BRSD, ECH, UofA
• 3 year project / 105,000 each year
• Provide support to schools/teachers for PA, MW
  HE
• Work with BRSD and ECH to set policy and process
• Essentially a quasi-experimental feasibility
  study
• Multiple measures
• Possible embedded case studies
• Year 1, 2 3 measurements of student health
• Intervention
• EAS / ECH facilitation and resource support
• Promising practices and collaboration with all
  partners
• Part-time staff position
• Action research principles for on-going
  improvement

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Process

• Year 1 (2007-2008)
• Sign up schools, set up steering committee,
  initiate planning, measure baseline
• Year 2 (2008-2009)
• District policy, school sharing, revised planning
• Year 3 (2009-2010)
• Continue revision of plans due to evaluation,
  measurement of students, promising and best
  practice
• Sustainability
• BRSD plan and process for ongoing support

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Supports

• District support to implement healthy initiatives
  in schools
• Curriculum supports
• Nutrition expertise
• Release time for planning/networking/sharing
• Workshops, resources, promising practices
• Working on priority issues in your school
• Working towards the vision of your school
  developing a game plan for your school
• Measurement and evaluation

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Your Role

• Plan and implement a Health Promoting Schools
  approach with the help of project coordinator and
  project team.
• Administer and review school capacity and student
  health measures.
• Contribute to the growth and success of the
  project.

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Measurement

• Capacity Measures
• Common measure of school capacity for health
  promotion (where are we now?)
• Done by every school in the BRSD
• Surveys
• Survey measures of individuals (students, staff)
• Physical Activity, Mental Wellbeing Healthy
  eating (self-report)
• Other
• Accelerometer / pedometer measurement
• BMI
• Links with other Projects
• Make the Healthy Choice the Easy Choice (10
  schools)
• AHW Study (100 schools)

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Health Promoting Schools

• Let us rethink school health away from kits and
  projects to solve problems and use the school as
  an ongoing setting where health is created,
  supportive environments are built, partnerships
  made and many skills are learned. Then we might
  be able to say this is what school communities
  can realistically do to build the health and
  wellbeing of their students now and into the
  future.
• (Leger, 2004)

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Its up to YOUWhat will you put into the
blender?More importantly, what do you hope to
pour out?