Wellness Watch: Program Summary

Wellness Watch, a program of the Green Youth Alliance (GYA), focuses on the following:

1. Provide students, faculty, staff, and parents with the knowledge, motivation, and infrastructure necessary for transitioning toward alternative forms of transportation, especially for getting to and from school. We will work with students, parents, and school officials to encourage students to take buses, bike, walk, and form carpools. Currently, in many neighborhoods students are dropped off by parents or drive themselves to school. Such school-related driving constitutes a significant proportion of green house gases emitted daily and also contributes to America’s obesity epidemic. We will educate and motivate students and parents to change their transportation habits for the sake of their own health and the health of our environment.
   
   
2. Educate students, parents, and school personnel about the importance of healthy diets based on increased consumption of high quality locally-sourced food. We will help facilitate the transition from cafeteria food obtained from industrial agricultural conglomerates to food produced by local, sustainably-farmed sources. We will also work with school officials to ensure that food sold in vending machines are healthy and meet healthy diet standards. We hope to achieve this through educating school communities about food ecology and providing cost-effective, economically-feasible alternatives.
   
   
3. Build strong local communities. “Wellness” goes beyond the physical and, as research has uncovered, healthy bodies are often rooted in “bonded communities” where people are anchored in strong family, friendship, neighborhood and community-wide networks. We will work toward this goal through ongoing education campaigns and activities related to 1 and 2 above, utilizing schools as community hubs. We also hope to build community bonds through advocacy campaigns.