Jill Zubrod-Hernandez
by Jill Zubrod-Hernandez MPH, Health Educator
This past summer was a flurry of 5-4-3-2-1 Go!™ outreach thanks to our wonderful partnership with Project SOAR. Project SOAR is a multifaceted family literacy program working with Head Start affiliated children, parents, and teens to develop literacy, leadership and employment skills. It is housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Learn more about Project SOAR here.
This has been a great example of a partner organization taking the 5-4-3-2-1 Go! message and running with it! First, I trained the Team Leaders in the message and taught them how to lead games that were developed to reinforce the message recommendations. (Learn more about CLOCC’s 5-4-3-2-1 Go! message here.) Then the message spread like wildfire as the Team Leaders trained their Teen Nutrition Aides (200+ teens) in the message and related activities. Once trained and ready to spread the message, the teens were deployed to 70+ sites across Chicago participating in the Summer Nutrition Program. In total, over 1,250 children were reached with the 5-4-3-2-1 Go! message multiple times throughout the summer. For more information on Project SOAR, contact Sam Austin, Youth Team Leader, at saustin3@uic.edu or 312-413-7403.
Children at one center applying what they have learned by sorting food and activity model cards into categories based on the 5-4-3-2-1 Go! message.
Teen Nutrition Aides commonly got the request to do “stations” with the preschool age kids. Here are children in two stations, one mastering their hula hoop skills, while the other practices tossing and catching a ball.
Following their physical activity stations, the Teen Aides made sure to have the children stretch out!