Promote health in 100 teens in Portland, Oregon

Vanessa Hansen knew MIKE would be a perfect fit for volunteering. “I was searching for an internship opportunity to work with the youth in my community to benefit their health,” says Hansen. “With MIKE, mentors get the chance to watch the youth transition into advocating for their own health.”

Hansen, who is majoring in community health education at Portland State University, is in her second year of volunteering as a mentor with MIKE. This year she’s taken on a morning and afternoon health class for ninth graders at De La Salle North Catholic High School. Hansen says it’s a rewarding challenge that fits with her training to become a health teacher. “My goal is to bring awareness of nutrition and health to help youth in their local communities become successful,” she says. “The importance of community health starts with youth, especially when addressing chronic diseases like diabetes.”

One of Vanessa’s favorite duties as a mentor is planning and presenting healthy snacks for the entire class. MIKE reinforces the message of healthy eating by providing easy and unique ways to introduce nutritious foods to youth. The combinations emphasize fruits, vegetables and whole grains, as well as drinking water.

“One of the largest factors against the push toward healthy lifestyles is all the temptations out there,” says Hansen. “Access plays a large part. There’s such convenience with fast food that it’s hard to pull back.”

Hansen says that convincing youth to focus on healthier eating habits can be challenging. When the youth complain that they are told to avoid so many of their favorite foods, Hansen offers them guidance and support. “It can be overwhelming, so I tell them it’s chipping away a step at a time, like decreasing the amount of sugar.”

Hansen likes that MIKE emphasizes healthy foods and the skills needed to analyze what’s nutritious. “Nutrition plays such a vital role in my life,” she says “MIKE comes up with fun ways for us to teach the youth valuable lessons about nutrition.”

MIKE provides youth with a set of actionable skills that help them distinguish nutrition facts from marketing while offering some real-world experiences to demonstrate those skills. During the program, MIKE hosts a field trip which places the youth inside a local grocery store. The youth must work in teams to search for healthy foods, practice food label analysis, then plan and purchase a healthy meal.

Hansen likes that MIKE guides youth toward sharing their new skills and knowledge through a health leadership project at the end of the program. The projects are youth-driven presentations that focus on a health message for their communities. Hansen’s first mentor team chose to present healthy snacks to a class of Kindergarteners last spring. “When the youth collectively plan and work on their Health Leadership Projects, they teach another generation.” she says. “It really brings it all home for them.”

MIKE is able to provide such valuable youth outreach experiences due to the support of caring individuals like you. Your contributions are helping build healthier generations.

Links:

• MIKE Program website

MIKE Program youth at Liberty High School brought together a team effort on and off the field, earlier this summer. As part of their Health Leadership Project, MIKE youth kicked around a variety of ways to inspire their peers toward healthier behaviors. When the idea of a soccer tournament came up, the youth knew they had a winning event.

The 17 youth who participated in MIKE’s inaugural afterschool program at Liberty wanted to emphasize the importance of health and physical activity in their projects. The soccer tournament, one of several projects, presented a platform in which they could emphasize both.

Donning their class-designed MIKE t-shirts, the youth set out toward the soccer field after school on a hot afternoon in June hoping they could attract some new fans to health. They had put in the effort to make and post signs around the high school campus, planned out the snacks and registered to use the soccer field.

They lined a row of benches with bottles of water and apples to entice their friends to play. As they watched school buses filled with teenagers drive off, a dozen young men noticed the signs for the soccer tournament and approached the youth in MIKE t-shirts.

It took only moments to convince the young men to a challenge on the soccer field. MIKE mentors and staff cheered as the young men and women took part in the friendly game. Even without keeping score, everyone on the field scored a win for health.

Physical activity is an important component of MIKE’s health programming. In a recent statewide survey of Oregon teens, only one quarter of all 11^th graders are active for at least 60 minutes a day. That time threshold is the minimum recommended for teens by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC finds that while younger adults, overall, are more likely to be physically active, African American and Latino populations, as well as those living below the poverty line, are less likely to achieve the recommended daily minimum levels. By focusing on youth in communities of color and populations of low socio-economic status MIKE is helping to boost those daily levels. Seventy-five percent of the youth MIKE serves self-identify within communities of color and low socio-economic status.

MIKE reinforces physical activity through its curriculum and near-age mentors. As role models, MIKE mentors offer a positive example for health and physical activity.

MIKE mentor Alvin Trieu, a Portland State University graduate in math and science, shared his love for sports throughout the semester. His hourly workouts at the gym each day inspired his younger peers toward increasing their own exercise regime. Trieu said he enjoyed mentoring the youth with MIKE.

“I believe that people who have time available in their lives should help guide others toward positive and healthy lifestyles,” he said. Trieu said that MIKE provided him with a great opportunity to educate and guide young teens.

Trieu and MIKE’s other mentors are able to make a difference in the lives of youth due to the generosity of our donors and sponsors. Such donations go far in paving the way for a healthier generation.

Links:

• MIKE Program website