In today’s episode, we chat with Ava DeBovis and Daniel Hatcher from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation. The Alliance works with NRPA on Commit to Health — our program to increase healthy eating and physical activity during out-of-school time programs managed by park and recreation departments.
Ava and Daniel address common barriers park and recreation staff may feel when attempting to create healthier out-of-school time and provide easy and practical solutions for overcoming them. They use their mythbusting prowess to debunk:
- Healthy out-of-school time is too expensive.
- My staff won’t buy into healthy out-of-school time.
- I don’t have time to change or implement new policies.
- My families are going to push back on healthy celebrations in lieu of “traditional” celebrations like cupcakes and pizza parties.
- I do not have enough support or resources to do healthy out-of-school time.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Commit to Health
- Amazon Healthier Generation Store
- Parks and Recreation Youth Engagement Guide
- Alliance Food Planner Tool (for healthy holiday celebrations and more!)
- Wildlife Explorers
- Parks and Recreation Implementation Guide (and more resources!)
- Alliance for a Healthier Generation Website
- Healthy Out-of-School Time Assessment
- Healthy Out-of-School Time (HOST) Blog
