Live Healthy & Thrive Youth Foundation is committed to provide youth with the educational tools they need to live healthier more balanced lifestyles.
By working in collaboration with the community, Live Healthy & Thrive Youth Foundation provides services that result in measurable improvements for the children being served.
The Need:
According to the Centers for Disease Control, obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population-based sample of 5 to 17 year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Obese adolescents are more likely to have pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels indicate a high risk for development of diabetes.
Disease researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made the prediction that one in three children born in the United States in 2000 will likely develop type 2 diabetes sometime in their lifetime unless they get more exercise and improve their diets.
Approximately 1 in 3 children in the US may have borderline or high cholesterol, according to a new study recently presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 63rd Annual Scientific Session. Of these children, 30% (4,709) were found to have high cholesterol (200 mg/dL or more) in line with definitions from the National Cholesterol Education Program.
Our Goals:
Because of the above facts pertinent to children and the dangers of childhood diabetes, obesity and general problems around a lack of healthy habits, at LHTYF we believe there is much work to be done in order to ensure our children lead healthier lifestyles in order to become the leaders of tomorrow.
Following are our goals…
- To grow the overall number of children we reach each year through our educational programs.
- To educate children how to live healthy, balanced lifestyles so they avoid obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
- To build the Pinnacle Youth Scholarship Fund which rewards deserving high school students with college scholarships to further their education.
We will achieve the Live Healthy & Thrive Youth Foundation goals by:
- Producing the Healthy Kids Summer camp each year to focus on teaching children the principles of healthy living: physical fitness, healthy eating via cooking demonstrations and health education awareness. The program will consists of professional facilitators including doctors, nurses, chefs and fitness trainers teaching core values for wellness.
- Producing “Healthy Kids” workshops each year, free of charge that will focus on educating kids about food/nutrition, fitness and proper health-care. We will provide kids with necessary positive tools that will assist them in developing healthy habits they can use later in life. These educational programs will provide developmental skills used to create a healthy lifestyle while educating them on the dangers of preventable illnesses such as obesity and diabetes.
- Conducting our gardening program, “Gardens are for Kids,” to teach elementary students about growing healthy foods and the importance of agriculture in our society.
- Providing yearly scholarships via the Pinnacle Youth Scholarship Fund to high-school seniors. Award criteria includes: grade point average of 3.0 or higher, writing an essay and plans to major in health, medicine, education, culinary arts or hospitality.
- Monitoring the success of each program on a quarterly basis.
- Promoting collaborative efforts to strengthen and encourage family support in the quest to live healthier.