Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2023-24—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 1
Health and Wellness Program
Bayview, Dover, Downer, Lake, and Riverside Elementary Schools
Letter of Interest [Maximum 500 words]
Bay Area Community Resources (BACR) is seeking renewed grant support from the City of San Pablo to continue strengthening our Health and Wellness program at five San Pablo elementary schools: Bayview, Dover, E.M. Downer, Lake, and Riverside. Over the last several years, BACR has been integrating health and wellness activities as an integral component of the community schools/Beacon programs we manage at all San Pablo schools. The Health and Wellness Programs have served more than 1,500 students, family members, and staff a year.
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 and municipalities 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/Community Schools at 18 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. To these ends, BACR has worked closely in partnership with the above individual schools, the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD), the City of San Pablo, and First Five Contra Costa.
From 2018 to 2023, BACR launched and expanded a Health and Wellness Program at six San Pablo schools (Helms, Dover, Downer, Riverside, Bayview, and Lake), thanks in large part to grant support from the City of San Pablo (COSP). During that time, the schools have provided a range of health and wellness activities. Core activities have included lunchtime and recess recreation and physical activities, school-wide health and wellness messaging, school wellness days, sports teams, field days and other school-wide activities. Other activities have included after school dance, yoga, other movement exercises, mindfulness, and cooking and nutrition classes. During extended periods due to COVID-19 school closures, BACR adapted by providing a range of online and virtual classes.
With proposed renewed grant funding of $100,000 from the City of San Pablo, BACR proposes in 2023-24 to build daily, organized recreation activities at each of the five elementary school campuses so that they become a standard, ongoing core activity as opposed to randomly provided and coordinated activities common to most programs. BACR also proposes to organize two school-wide field days during the school year. To lead these activities, BACR will hire Recess Coaches to coordinate and lead the recreation and physical (and sports) activities.
Ultimately, BACR aims to create the norm of health awareness and physical activity at the five elementary schools.
Approach, Management, and Evaluation Plan [Maximum 500 words]
BACR is one of the largest providers of school-based programming in the region, delivering on- campus expanded learning programming at 126 sites and mental health services at 59 sites. As Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2023-24—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 2
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 supervised by BACR’s Community School Manager, Joyce Synnott, 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, Recess Coach, or volunteer. The activities proposed for 2023-24 are expected to be conducted in-person on the school campuses.
As San Pablo’s Beacon/Community in Schools Initiative sites, 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 is ultimately responsible for evaluating the success of the Health and Wellness program at each school, but will train and rely on the Recess Coaches to collect data and complete monthly narrative reports for the project, which the Beacon Director will submit in compliance with project guidelines. This information includes quantitative attendance measures recorded in CitySpan and 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 Recess Coaches from Contra Costa College and the local community; aligned with the San Pablo Local Economic Opportunity Policy, we will recruit Recess Coaches through announcements with COSP in addition to other venues.
Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2023-24—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 3
Project Experience [Maximum 500 words]
Overall—As previously noted, 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 has been 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, community schools/Beacon Centers at 18 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.
Health and Wellness—Since 2018, BACR has successfully been creating and expanding a Health and Wellness Program in San Pablo public schools, beginning with Helms, Dover, Downer, and Riverside. This effort has been made possible 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.
While all in-person programming was curtailed after March 20, 2020 due to COVID-19 school closures, 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, again with support from the City of San Pablo.
Over the last year, BACR has continued to strengthen universal, Tier 1 supports to students to promote a positive school climate and a healthy student body. Despite staff shortages and programming delays, we have made increasing inroads in creating more organized recess games and sports tournaments, particularly at Dover, and hold school-wide wellness events.
Highlighted below are just a few of the many Program highlights and positive outcomes 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 Coach-led coordinated physical activities during recess time; ⮚ 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; and
⮚ 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.
Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2023-24—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 4
Proposed Scope of Services [Maximum 1,500 words]
Building on a Foundation of Beacon Center Programming—As in previous years, BACR already delivers several tiers of support through our Beacon/ Community-In-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. 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 2023-2024—For the upcoming school year, the Health and Wellness Program aims to build daily, organized recreation activities at the five elementary school sites. Toward this end, with the proposed grant funds from the City of San Pablo, we propose to hire five part-time Recess Coaches whose roles will be to (A) provide daily lunchtime and recess physical activities so that students are active and engaged, and (B) organize two school-wide field days during the school year.
Number of Projected Unduplicated Clients—The table below indicates the number of estimated unduplicated clients participating from each of the five 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 Lake Riverside Total San Pablo
Residents
0-5 years 22 18 22 0 0 62 56 K-3rd
grade
168 282 215 228 110 1,003 912
4th-6th
grade
134 230 213 164 140 881 802
Total
324 530 450 392 250 1,946 1,770
The total estimated number of participating students is 1,946 (approximately 1,770 residing in San Pablo).
Bay Area Community Resources Health and Wellness Program
RFP FY 2023-24—Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs and Services 5
Table of Activities
Clients
Type
Unduplicated
# of Clients,
Total/SP Res.
Projected # of
Average Dosage
hours per client
Brief description & proposed schedule
0-5 Years 62/56
62/56
170
4 >Lunchtime and recess recreation and physical
activities, 5 days/week (M-F), 1 hour/day
throughout the school year (34 weeks).
>Field Days, twice a year.
K-3rd grade 1,003/912
1,003/912
170
4 >Lunchtime and recess recreation and physical
activities, 5 days/week (M-F), 1 hour/day
throughout the school year (34 weeks).
>Field Days, twice a year.
4th-6th grade 881/802
881/802
170
4 >Lunchtime and recess recreation and physical
activities, 5 days/week (M-F), 1 hour/day
throughout the school year (34 weeks).
>Field Days, twice a year.
Beyond the scope of activities by proposed grant funds, 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 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 occasional tournaments 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. Program Coaches will work closely with the Beacon Director to ensure and help facilitate campus wide events like the Accelerated Reader Field Days and student vs. staff games.
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. Listed below are the key outcomes we aim to achieve:
❖ 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.