By Sherry Harbert | Administrative and Communications Director
New School Year is New Opportunity for Youth, Mentors and Teachers
MIKE Program has been busy all summer to provide local teachers with the tools they need to incorporate healthy lifestyles in their health classes. Jess Bogli, Oregon’s health education curriculum specialist, led a two-day workshop in August to help teachers incorporate MIKE Program’s award-winning health curriculum into their health classes.
The curriculum is a hands-on model that brings mentors, often health professions’ students, into local high schools serving low-income inner city and rural young people to modify behavior and reinforce health promotion and disease prevention, while promoting the knowledge and skills for sustaining healthy kidneys. The curriculum, aligned with Oregon’s K-12 standards, offers multi-sensory learning for youth who are most at-risk for developing obesity, hypertension and diabetes.
One of our recent mentors said “MIKE Program makes me feel aware and helps me set myself to become a healthy person.” We look forward to creating that awareness in many classrooms this school year.
Volunteers Help Preserve Youth Designs
Soon after Danielle Horn moved to Portland, she began to look for ways to volunteer in the community. It helped her meet new people and share one of her many talents—quilting. After meeting with MIKE Program’s 2010-2011 AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinator Jess Himelfarb, Danielle came up with an idea to capture the designs of youth from their t-shirt projects. The t-shirt design project is one of the fun ways youth can illustrate their knowledge of the functions of their kidneys and healthy choices.
Danielle took home t-shirts from the last four years and worked on a plan to feature them in a quilt. Her activities drew the attention of fellow quilter, Pamela Head. As they near completion of the quilt, plans are being prepared to feature it in our annual benefit dinner and auction on October 1. The colorful quilt will provide more than the artistry and ideas of youth who have been a part of MIKE Program—it will extend their enthusiasm for healthy kidneys to all those who see it.
AmeriCorps Film Project for MIKE Program on YouTube
MIKE Program believes education is key to empowering youth, adults and the community. That’s why we participate in the AmeriCorps service program. AmeriCorps offers young adults an opportunity to learn and help nonprofits strengthen their outreach and work. Jess Himelfarb was the first AmeriCorps service member to join us. The Lewis and Clark College graduate helped shape our management of the many volunteers who make MIKE Program possible. Much like MIKE Program’s curriculum requirement for the youth inside their classroom, AmeriCorps requires an individual project from each service member before completing their 11-month commitment.
Jess created a film project to feature the importance of volunteering and how MIKE Program shaped the lives of those who volunteer. With the help of videographer Stacie Stevens, Jess captured the essence of what MIKE Program means to those who volunteer. We couldn’t ask for a better way to show that than with Jess’ film. Watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asauZTYa_Jg
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