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What We Are and What We Do
Jóvenes SANOS, a project of Go for Health!, is a Watsonville based youth advocacy project raising community awareness about childhood obesity. The Jóvenes SANOS youth seek to increase opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity for the young people of Watsonville through implementing long-term environmental policy and system change. The group is working in three sectors of the community to address this public health issue: city planning, markets, and schools. The 25-30 youth of Jóvenes SANOS are divided up into one of these three advocate groups.
Youth Advocate Groups:
Group Objectives
- Cost of water and fresh juices at PVUSD schools will be lowered.
- PVUSD will offer more fresh fruits and vegetables that are appealing for students.
- PVUSD will increase the number of schools participating in Bike to School Day.
- There will be an increase in partnership between PVUSD South Zone schools and after-school fitness programs.
Successes:
- Developed a Best Practices/Internal Policy document and successfully distributed it to school administrators, parents and teachers
- Designed a nutrition poster that would be appealing to youth and distributed it to school cafeterias and administrators in the south zone
- Increased the number of schools participating in Bike to School Day from 0 to 6 schools
The goal of this group is to partner with local community agencies to promote and increase opportunities for youth to engage in healthy eating, safe bicycle riding and walking, and physical activity.
Group Objectives
- City Council will engage in efforts to increase bike lanes and sidewalks in identified commercial zones.
- City Council adopts zoning changes to limit fast food restaurants near schools and parks.
Successes:
- The youth made a specific “ask” to the city council that a local task force be formed to begin to discuss the local food environement and the proportion of unhealthy food options in the Watsonville, with the hopes of creating a policy recommendation to limit the amount of fast food restaurants near schools and parks. The request for a taskforce was voted on and approved by the city council and the Jóvenes SANOS were approved as members of the taskforce.
- Through the Watsonville Bike and Pedestrian Safety Task Force, the teens are working with Maria Rodriguez, Principal Engineer at the City of Watsonville Public Works and Utilities Department, to provide input into the next Bicycle Plan.
The goal of this group is to partner with local Watsonville markets to increase opportunities for the purchase of affordable, healthy foods that are sold near schools and parks.
Group Objectives
- Targeted markets will display increased print ads for fruit and vegetables and decreased print ads for beer, junk food, cigarettes and soda.
- Targeted markets will display more fresh fruits and vegetables at child eye level and less candy and junk food at child’s eye level.
- More fresh fruits and vegetables will be offered in targeted markets.
Successes:
- Spring 2008 the markets group launched the “Watsonville Healthy Markets” pilot program.
- 3 of the 7 markets solicited signed the partnership agreement and have been working for the past year to decrease the obesity rate in their community by: offering more fresh fruits and vegetables, displaying more advertisements that promote healthier foods and fewer advertisements for beer, cigarettes, and junk food and providing healthy foods at child’s eye level around cash registers.
- The youth are eager to present these 3 markets with a recognition award, the “Wealth of Health” award this spring.
- In January 2009, two additional markets signed the partnership agreement and will be working closely with Jóvenes SANOS in the coming months
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