Several years ago, Dr. Karen Gaudreault’s students, who were studying to become PE
teachers, asked if they could develop an afterschool program that focused on physical
activity to get extra practice working with kids. Dr. Gaudreault thought the idea
was fantastic and headed to the Albany County School District office to see what could
be done.
The assistant superintendent at the time also believed it was a good idea, but she had a slight change to the originally proposed idea: the program should be offered to at-risk children as there was an identified lack of resources to serve this population of students and families. Dr. Gaudreault and several UW faculty came together to fill this need, and Healthy Pokes was established.
“My favorite thing about Healthy Pokes is what it means to the children and seeing the college students and children together,” says Dr. Gaudreault. “The children—overwhelmingly—what they love about the program is the college students, and being with the college students makes these children feel good.”
Healthy Pokes has been operating in Laramie since 2014 and recently launched an expansion site in Cheyenne in the fall of 2015. The Cheyenne site is hosted at Laramie County Community College with the help of the Exercise Science Department and students studying in Elementary Education and Physical Education Teaching.
The Healthy Pokes program is an integrated approach to addressing childhood obesity and overall health of at-risk youth in Wyoming. The program is led and delivered by a team of faculty members and graduate and undergraduate students from the Division of Kinesiology and Health and the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at UW.
Dr. Gaudreault is the director of the program, with the following professors participating as co-investigators: Dr. Tucker Readdy, Division of Kinesiology and Health; Dr. Enette Larson-Meyer, Department of Family and Consumer Science; Dr. Christine Wade, Department of Family and Consumer Science; and Dr. Stacy Carling, Research Coordinator.
The children are referred to the Healthy Pokes program by a pediatrician, school nurse, principal, or social worker. They are often referred if they have a BMI (body mass index) in the 80% or higher, are at risk for developing overweightness, or have behavioral or emotional issues.
The Healthy Pokes program is both a service and research program, and some of the things the co-investigators look at are body shape and size, height, weight, waist circumference, and self-efficacy. They also measure how much physical activity the children get during program sessions using a pedometer. They also have the children self-report on the amount of time they spend in front of a screen, whether it’s TV, tablets, or phones, because there’s a connection between physical activity and screen time.
Healthy Pokes is different from other intervention programs of this nature because it takes a multidisciplinary and longitudinal approach to address child health. The program focuses on children in grades 3–8 (ages 7–14) and runs for 10 weeks during each academic semester, with the students participating in one 2-hour session per week. During these sessions, children receive education and participate in activities focusing on the following components:
Undergraduate students are trained in the best practices associated with mentoring at-risk youth and relationship building. In addition, mentoring supports education regarding nutrition, physical activity, and emotional health. There are many benefits to this type of program, both for the children involved and the college students who volunteer their time. These include:
The Healthy Pokes program is successful because of the people involved and the partnerships that are formed. Healthy Pokes works with local school districts to identify the at-risk students that would benefit from the program, and the school districts bus the kids to and from the sessions—without this, many of the kids wouldn’t be able to participate.
The program is funded by the Wyoming Department of Health, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, and Ivinson Memorial Hospital. Local partners in Laramie include Albany County School District 1, Laramie Physicians for Women and Children, and Wal-Mart. Partners in Cheyenne include LCCC, Laramie County School District 1, and Cheyenne Children’s Clinic.
Currently, the Laramie program has 26 participants, and the Cheyenne program has 18. There is room for 30 kids total, and the long-term goals are to help kids become healthier, physically, emotionally, and mentally.
“We’re seeing overwhelmingly [the children] love being here, and being here makes them feel good, and—to me—that’s the most important thing,” explains Dr. Gaudreault.
