Impact
Fit Kids in the 2020-2021 school year will positively impact at least 23,477 children, nearly all in underserved communities, at more than 130 sites. Our structured fitness programs contribute to their establishing healthy lifestyles and gaining all the social-emotional learning benefits associated with physical activity.
Following are highlights of Fit Kids’ impact during the 2019-2020 school year, despite the pandemic precluding our normal fitness testing.
Among the most encouraging findings were the following:
Fit Kids Site Coordinators also reported on the variety of physical, mental, and emotional impacts their students experienced through our program.
A Note about the Need for Fit Kids
Before the pandemic forced closure of our two Innovation Sites in East Palo Alto’s Ravenswood City School District—Willow Oaks Elementary and Costano Elementary—program participants took baseline fitness tests.
Unfortunately, we were unable to conduct post-testing to measure any changes in fitness over the course of the school year. Our hope—which is confirmed by prior-year data—is that Fit Kids helps move those numbers in the right direction.
The baseline test results make it very clear that these young people need what Fit Kids provides. As a group, they fell short of the national standard for all four fitness measures.
Curl Ups test abdominal strength—only 1 in 20 students (4.6%) met the standard for this activity. Less than 1 in 5 (17.7%) could do the expected number of Push Ups. Just 1 in 3 (33.1%) were flexible enough to meet the standard for the V-Sit Reach. And fewer than 1 in 2 (43.4%) had the speed and agility required to beat the standard Shuttle Run time.
We look forward to the time when we can return to implementing our programs in person and continue our testing that demonstrates how Fit Kids develops fit kids!
