Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2022-23—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 2
Approach, Management, and Evaluation Plan
Bay Area Community Resources is one of the largest providers of school-based programming in the San Francisco Bay Area, delivering expanded learning programming at more than 100 sites and mental health services at over 60 sites. As part of this programming, BACR has successfully promoted a Health and Wellness Program at several San Pablo schools, including at Helms Middle School, and Bayview, Dover, E.M. Downer, Lake, and Riverside Elementary Schools. At each school, BACR coordinates the Beacon Centers, under which umbrella BACR’s Beacon Directors coordinate a range of student and family support services, including the Health and Wellness Program.
The Beacon Directors work closely with the school administration, teachers, parents, students, and community providers to support the school goals, which include a strong health and wellness component. Many of these activities are coordinated with the schools’ Expanded Learning Programs (ELPs) and help to increase services and programs for youth. Each Beacon Director closely supervises the activities, observing classes, meeting with providers periodically to support and assess the programming and evaluate success. The Beacon Directors are supported under the general supervision of BACR’s Director of East Bay Programs, Stephanie Hochman, who manages the contract and monitors program efficacy.
Health and wellness activities promote nutrition, physical activity, mindfulness, and parent engagement. Some activities are offered through specific classes/activities; others are offered as school-wide promotional events. They are led by an ELP instructor, parent, AmeriCorps Member, or volunteer. Barring future school closures due to COVID-19, the activities proposed for 2022-23 are expected to be conducted in-person on the school campuses; however, BACR will maintain the capability and capacity to deliver many classes online (via Zoom) if necessary.
As San Pablo’s Beacon/Community in Schools Initiative cites, it is our mission to ensure that San Pablo children and families have the tools and support they need to be successful in school and life. This grant provides the opportunity to offer school-wide health and wellness promotion and activities programming. By adding these components to our existing counseling services and support services, we align with the five broad goals of San Pablo’s Community Action Plan developed by the Childhood Obesity Prevention Task Force (March 2014). We also align with the Whole School Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) framework for addressing health in schools.
Evaluation—The Beacon Director evaluates the success of the Health and Wellness program at each school through quantitative attendance measures recorded in CitySpan. Also, the Director measures qualitative outcomes through a post-only survey given to both youth and teacher participants. The student survey measures student impressions on how safe, helpful, and engaging the activities are, and the teacher survey measures teacher impressions on school culture and climate improvement and health/wellness gains (student and teacher) as a result of the program.
BACR seeks to recruit AmeriCorps Members from the local community; aligned with the San Pablo Local Economic Opportunity Policy, we will recruit AmeriCorps Members through announcements with COSP in addition to other venues.
Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2022-23—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 3
Project Experience
From 2018 to 2020, BACR was successfully expanding a Health and Wellness Program at four San Pablo schools (Helms, Dover, Downer, and Riverside), thanks in large part to grant support from the City of San Pablo. During that time, the schools were providing after school dance, yoga, other movement exercises, mindfulness, and cooking and nutrition classes. Helms was running a lunchtime sports league. At some sites, cooking and nutrition classes were offered to parents. These classes were all highly attended. BACR also launched several school-wide promotions in health and wellness messaging and physical activity. All in-person programming was curtailed after March 20, 2020 due to COVID-19 school closures. However, BACR was able to adapt by providing a range of online and virtual classes to ensure that adequate social distancing measures are maintained. Beginning Fall 2021, as schools began to open to in-person classes, BACR, too, began to ramp-up in person Health and Wellness classes while maintaining the option of virtual learning. BACR also expanded programming at Bayview and Lake elementary schools.
As an agency overall, BACR has been a leading provider of school-based youth development and mental health services for high-risk children, youth, and their families in the Bay Area since 1976 and specifically in San Pablo and Richmond since 1987. A major strength is our ability to partner with schools to create programs that meet student and school needs. In West Contra Costa Unified Schools, BACR delivers expanded learning programs at 13 schools, Beacon Centers at eight schools, on-site mental health services at more than 20 schools, student health centers at four schools, youth-led substance prevention activities at five schools, and a First Five Center.
All of our after school programs and Beacon Centers in San Pablo and Richmond offer a wide range of activities to promote health and wellness, such as yoga, dance, sports, mindfulness, and cooking and nutrition education.
Highlighted below are just a few of the many highlights and positive outcomes at the six schools of the Health and Wellness Program over the last several years:
Increased school-wide public announcements related to health and wellness; Ongoing sports activities during lunch (consistent and well-attended); Increased teacher-led recess activities;
Recess Coordinators supported with coordinated physical activities during recess time; Ongoing and well-attended healthy cooking program;
A wider selection of health and wellness classes for kids after school; Higher exposure to and selection of healthy snacks and water; Rethink Your Drink event held during the Winter Carnival; Increased basic health literacy skills;
Creation of a Health Champion/Wellness Coordinator/Shared Coach across school sites; More wellness days for staff and students that focus on health, such as eating, exercise, stress management—especially with a universal, prevention-based focus on the mental health of everyone at the school; and
Increased health/wellness-related collaborations between the Expanded Learning Program and school staff.
Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2022-23—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 4
Scope of Services
Building on a Foundation of Beacon Center Programming—As in previous years, BACR already delivers several tiers of support through our Beacon/Community Schools sites that include family literacy, school-wide culture and climate initiatives, and mental health services for our respective school communities. We have also begun adding to those tiers of supports to ensure that students and their families have the opportunity to participate in learning experiences that support their health and well-being. These tiers of support have included the following:
School-wide health and wellness messaging;
School-wide physical activity promotions and offerings; and Family engagement and extended learning.
We also work through our school Culture and Climate and/or other leadership teams to develop policies and/or universal norms that will promote school-wide guidelines to increase being active and developing healthy classroom practices. We will host community partner orientations to ensure alignment of our identified health and wellness goals with ongoing systemic change.
Also, we are integrating discussion of continued obesity prevention work through collaborative meetings with each of the schools. Further, in light of the ever-changing status of the COVID-19 virus and its effect on the degree of school closures and social distancing measures, we have established and will maintain an option of providing classes and other group activities virtually, such as via Zoom format. The Beacon Director and school health and wellness teams continue to support student recruitment, parent outreach, and teacher support elements to enable us to reach the proposed number of students and families.
Proposed Health and Wellness Programming for 2022-2023—For the upcoming school year, the Health and Wellness Program aims to create the norm of health awareness and physical activity at the six school sites. Toward this end, with proposed grant funds from the City of San Pablo, we propose to strengthen the following activities at each of the six school campuses so that they become a standard, ongoing core activity as opposed to randomly provided and coordinated activities common to most programs:
Lunchtime and recess recreation and physical activities—students will participate twice weekly (M/W or T/Th) in activities such as dance, hula hoops, jump rope, basketball, and field hockey.
School-wide health and wellness messaging (such as Rethink Your Drink); each school will ensure that water and healthy snacks are available at school-wide events and activities. By providing healthy food/drink and healthy eating messaging, we hope to create positive and healthy school norms.
School Wellness Days—staff and students will engage in emotional regulation activities such as yoga, meditation, and stress management. We will support teachers to integrate these activities in the classroom to support social-emotional health.
Sports Teams (lunch and/or after school)—students will participate once or twice weekly (M/W or T/Th) in organized sports (including competitive/intramural) activities such as soccer, kickball, flag football, running, volleyball, basketball, and field hockey.
Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2022-23—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 5
Field Days and other school-wide activities—each school will conduct school-wide wellness games and activities such as a Valentine’s Day Walk/Run, staff/student games, and other Field Day activities/games.
Number of Projected Unduplicated Clients—The table below indicates the number of estimated unduplicated clients participating from each of the six schools. In addition to those listed below, we anticipate that almost the entire student populations at each school will at some point engage in some of the activities (which are open to the entire student population). Hence, the total actual numbers will most likely be somewhat higher.
Bayview Dover Downer Helms Lake Riverside Total San Pablo Residents
0-5 years 20 13 22 0 0 20 75 68 K-3rd
grade
210 296 221 0 228 190 1,145 1,020 4th-6th
grade
156 237 246 0 164 160 963 867 7th-8th
grade
0 0 0 650 0 0 650 590 Adults
(18+
years)
28 staff
40 staff
43 staff
30 staff
20 staff
25 staff
186
staff
62 staff
The total estimated number of participating students is 2,833 (approximately 2,545 residing in San Pablo), along with 186 adults.
Table of Activities
Clients
Type
# of Undupli-
cated Clients,
Total/SP Res.
Projected # of
Average Dosage
hours per client
Brief description & proposed schedule
0-5 Years 75/68
75/68
75/68
75/68
72 **
2 4
>Lunchtime and recess recreation and physical
activities, twice weekly throughout the school year.
>School messaging throughout the year.
>Wellness Days, twice a year.
>Field Days, twice a year.
K-3rd grade 925/833
1,145/1,020
1,145/1,020
220/187
1,145/1,020
72 **
2 72
4 >Lunchtime and recess recreation and physical
activities, twice weekly throughout the school year.
>School messaging throughout the year.
>Wellness Days, twice a year.
>Sports teams, twice weekly throughout the year.
>Field Days, twice a year.
4th-6th grade 713/642
963/867
963/867
250/225
963/867
72 **
2 72
4 >Lunchtime and recess recreation and physical
activities, twice weekly throughout the school year.
>School messaging throughout the year.
>Wellness Days, twice a year.
>Sports Teams, twice weekly throughout the year.
>Field Days, twice a year.
Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2022-23—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 6
7th-8th grade 550/495
650/590
650/590
100/85
650/590
72 **
2 72
4 >Lunchtime and recess recreation and physical
activities, twice weekly throughout the school year.
>School messaging throughout the year.
>Wellness Days, twice a year.
>Sports teams, twice weekly throughout the year.
>Field Days, twice a year.
Adults
(18+years)
186/62
186/62
2 4
>Wellness Days, twice a year.
>Field Days, twice a year.
**School messaging is integrated with other events/activities and isn’t time-measurable.
We will hire three AmeriCorps Members to coordinate and lead the recreation, physical (and sports) activities. Each AmeriCorps Member will be assigned to two schools and lead activities at each site twice weekly. Some schools will utilize Culture and Climate Teams to support school-wide positive behavior strategies to discourage/eliminate “benching” during recess or designated physical activity periods. The program will also encourage teachers to integrate mindfulness and other wellness strategies to increase emotional regulation in the classroom. As well, the program will encourage teachers to use classroom physical activity breaks, energizers, and breathing exercise to offer students time to move after sitting for prolonged periods. All elementary schools will also promote physical activity as part of the Expanded Learning Programs as well as during lunchtime, recess, and PE times. At each of the school sites, we will look into opportunities for youth to connect across school sites, such as through developing an intermural sports league.
We will particularly target those students who are typically less active during lunch and break time. Activities can include basketball, soccer, volleyball, flag football, dance, or Double Dutch (jump-rope). Activities will alternate between drop-in activities and intramural leagues to increase the amount of students served. Switching between traditional sports and fun games will give students who otherwise don’t feel confident in playing organized sports the opportunity to engage in physical activity. AmeriCorps Members will work closely with the Beacon Director to ensure and help facilitate campus wide events like the Accelerated Reader Field Days, 8th grade field trip, and student vs. staff games.
School-Wide Health and Wellness Messaging—We propose to expand existing Culture and Climate and/or other school leadership teams to include health promotion and create youth-led group(s) to develop and deliver school-wide health messages. Examples including the following:
● Rethink Your Drink: messaging to people learn about the health risk from the large amount of added sugar and empty calories in popular sugary drinks.
● Blender Bike Station Events: participants have to ride stationary bikes for the blenders to work. We provide fresh fruit and vegetables for the students to blend and drink at the end.
Anticipated Outcomes—As previously noted in the Evaluation description, the student survey will measure student impressions on how safe, helpful, and engaging the activities were, and the teacher survey will measure teacher impressions on school culture and climate improvement and health/wellness gains (student and teacher) as a result of the program. Listed below are a few key outcomes we aim to achieve:
Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2022-23—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 7
80% of the total school population will participate in school-wide events and physical activity options.
60% of regular participants will report that having physical activity options increased their physical activity.
80% of students will report that they drink water regularly.
90% of teachers who participate in Wellness events will report emotional benefits from being appreciated and engaging in stress reduction/emotional regulation activities.
References:
1. Martine Blake, WCCUSD Director of Community Engagement [email protected] (510) 965-4416
2. Kasey Blackburn-Jiron, WCCUSD Expanded Learning Coordinator [email protected] (510) 307-4652
3. Jessica Petrilli, Helms Middle School Principal
[email protected] (510) 231-1423
Insurance:
Bay Area Community Resources’ insurance meets the terms contained in the sample agreement included with this RFP/RFQ.
Conflict of Interest Statement:
Bay Area Community Resources has not made any contributions to any City of San Pablo public official (hired or elected), or to volunteers serving on review commissions having an influence on this work.
Consultant Contract Statement:
Bay Area Community Resources accepts the terms of the City’s Consultant Contract form.
Proposed Budget: (See Attached)
Letters of Support: (See Attached)
1. Theresa Williams, Bayview Elementary School Principal
2. Melinda Piezas, Dover Elementary School Principal
3. Chris Reed, E.M. Downer Elementary School Principal
4. Jessica Petrilli, Helms Middle School Principal
5. Kenneth Bonner, Lake Elementary School Principal
6. Christine Hatcher, Riverside Elementary School Principal
Fiscal Agent Agreement: (Not Applicable)