YRMC five-week program aims to instill healthy habits
In children ages 6 to 10
Yuma Regional Medical Center’s Healthy Kids program kicks off its five-week spring session April 13 with a virtual twist. Now in its seventh year, the program traditionally offers multiple in-person sessions each year, but transitioned to a virtual model last fall owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Healthy Kids is tailored to introduce six- to 10-yearolds to “concepts of wellbeing” spanning nutrition, physical activity and mental and emotional wellness that, facilitators hope, will enhance their quality of life.
“We want to support the whole health of our participants,” said Veronica
Cacciatore, Healthy Kids program host and wellness coach at YRMC. “We hope the kids can really take some time to explore these concepts at this younger age, find things that work for them and carry this with them in the years to come. We want to support the development of a lifestyle focused around wellbeing that will last well beyond the program.”
The program is funded through the Foundation of YRMC, making it available to participating families at no cost.
Thanks to the virtual format, the program has been able to expand to serve 50 participants, each of whom receive a kit at the start of the program that includes a program guide and the materials needed to complete each week’s activities – which means that, because the rest of the bases are covered, all parents need to worry about is following the program guide, which they can do at their own pace each week.
To ensure success and personalization in participants’ virtual engagement, two-way communication and virtual meetings are built into the program, providing opportunities to connect with program facilitators and other kids who are participating.
The spring Healthy Kids session concludes May 13; according to Cacciatore, a fall and possible summer session are planned to occur later this year.
As a certified health education specialist, Cacciatore understands the value of exposing children to healthy practices at a young age; with the pandemic still affecting many areas of children’s everyday lives, she feels it’s more important now than ever before.
“I think it has always been very important to talk about living healthy lifestyles, especially with kids, but even more so right now with all of the time that we’ve been spending at home with a lot of screen time,” said Cacciatore. “This program offers something different to add into the mix; it provides a lot of resources and recommendations and education around things that families can do at home. It’s a great opportunity for kids to be exposed to something new – for example, new foods or different ways of being active – that maybe they wouldn’t have known about before.”
The program isn’t just about building healthy kids, though; in fact, its core goal is to rope in the entire family.
“The program is designed to support and encourage the whole family unit to learn together and apply this new knowledge to their everyday choices – because it’s oftentimes easier and more fun to practice healthy habits when you have the whole family on board,” said Cacciatore.
When offered in person, the program had local partners including the YMCA, Sprouts Farmers Market and local chefs who conducted cooking demos for some of the activities. According to Cacciatore, each partner has played a critical role in Healthy Kids’ evolution.
“Those partnerships are something we hope to maintain as we eventually, hopefully, go back to in-person,” she said. “We obviously can’t do those in-person activities right now, but those partnerships have been really important in building the program into what is.”
Cacciatore added: “A big part of this program is to meet the needs of our community; that’s really important. As the hospital here in the community, we feel that this is meeting an important need for our community.”
To register for the Healthy Kids program’s spring session, visit www.yumaregional.org/ For-The-Community/Community-Wellness-Resources/Healthy-Kids. Registration forms are due April 7.