ue teams up with oakland youth
With childhood obesity reaching alarming rates in California, Urban Ecology is helping young residents of a diverse East Oakland community find new ways to exercise and eat healthier foods.
The cutting-edge project -- which garnered a recent visit by California's First Lady, Maria Shriver -- represents an unusual partnership between Urban Ecology, the Alameda County Department of Public Health, the East Bay Asian Youth Center and Cycles of Change.
For six weeks this summer, Urban Ecology and the East Bay Asian Youth Center helped 17 high school students who live in the San Antonio community pursue answers to two key questions: How easy is it to get physical exercise nearby, and how available is fresh and healthy food? The answers underscored why health-related problems are on the rise among kids and adults in California and elsewhere.
After developing and administering both interviews and surveys to nearly a 150 of their peers, families, recreation providers and local storeowners, students learned that:
- Many San Antonio youth know someone who suffers from asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and/or obesity - illnesses that are linked to poor eating habits and lack of exercise.
- 62% of ALL stores in the San Antonio neighborhood are either a liquor store or convenience store, while that percentage climbs to 90% in residential areas.
- San Antonio youth often buy soda, chips and junk food when they visit one of these corner stores in their neighborhood;
At the same time, the students' research indicated that youth understand that eating right is important.
"Helping these kids understand the obstacles to healthy living is the first step towards getting them to be part of creating solutions in their neighborhood," said Urban Ecology Community Planning Director Amy Tanner, who co-led the project with Christine Cherdboonmuang and Chanda Mae of the East Bay Asian Youth Center.
Urban Ecology and the East Bay Asian Youth Center will next work with students to create a vision for change in their neighborhood. Specifically, they will focus on strategies for making fresh, affordable and healthy food available in the neighborhood, as well as cultivating the demand for adequate physical activity centers.
In keeping with the spirit of healthy activities, the youth conducted their research by walking, riding their bikes or on public transportation. Tanner said that heads would often turn as the students peddled their bikes along side busy traffic down Foothill Boulevard, stopping at stores along the way to ask owners questions about what foods they stock and why.
Field trips were also part of the project. Students went to destinations including Farm Fresh Choice in South and West Berkeley and People's Grocery in West Oakland. The goal was to raise the students' awareness of a growing commitment and desire among residents of inner-city neighborhoods to have easy access to locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. The field trips also helped students generate ideas for how to change the San Antonio neighborhood.
One particularly memorable trip was to Oakland's Peralta Hacienda Park, where the students interviewed an elderly Mien immigrant who gardens in the park. The students listened respectfully as the woman explained that she had been farming since she was old enough to hold a stick. When asked what she might otherwise do with her time if she did not garden, the woman said, "If I didn't garden, I would just be sitting on my bum. Why wouldn't I want to garden?"
Funding for the project comes from the California Endowment's Healthy Eating, Active Communities Initiative . Launched in early 2005, the initiative selected six sites statewide for a four-year effort. The Oakland project, which builds upon work Urban Ecology and the East Bay Asian Youth Center have been undertaking since 2003, was one of only six selected out of dozens of applicants.
