University Advancement
Quinn 1
617-287-5348
giving@umb.edu
Alumni Relations
Quinn 2
617-287-5349
alumni@umb.edu
U.S. Surgeon General Visits GoKids Boston
GoKids Boston, a research, educational training, and community outreach center for youth fitness, was recognized Monday for its work in helping to prevent childhood obesity.
The center at the University of Massachusetts Boston focuses on physical fitness, healthy eating, and self-esteem for diverse groups of youth from traditionally underserved populations. A primary aim of GoKids is developing physical and mental well-being and integrating fitness and education. The financial investment of individuals, the government, and corporations and foundations has provided a solid foundation for GoKids Boston's work, including interdisciplinary studies about ways to promote physical activity and healthy weight in kids and teens from low-income neighborhoods in Boston. Much of the research being done explores new uses of technology to promote fitness.
Donors include the Boston Scientific Foundation, Childrens Hospital, Boston Public Schools, the Women's Sports Foundation's GoGirlGo initiative, and National Institutes of Health. In addition, in-kind donors include Cybex International, Sports wall Insternational, and Lightspace, Inc.
Healthy youth for a healthy future
Acting U.S. Surgeon General Rear Admiral Steven K. Galson toured the facility as part of his national “Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future” initiative, which is recognizing and showcasing those communities and innovative programs that are addressing childhood obesity issues. “I am honored to have the opportunity to visit communities across the country and meet first-hand with those actively engaged in finding ways to prevent childhood obesity,” said Dr. Galson. “UMass Boston’s commitment to addressing this issue is clear, and I commend Chancellor Motley, Dr. McInnis, and the faculty and staff for their work.”
UMass Boston’s GoKids center partners with public schools, community health centers, hospitals, YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs, and others to improve healthy lifestyles in youth from underserved Boston communities where rates of obesity and low physical activity are disproportionately common. According to GoKids Director Kyle McInnis, “The center combines evidence-based behavioral strategies, fun interactive games such as lighted walls and computerized dance pads, and creative curriculum to help get kids engaged and moving.”
Fitness: the heart of kids' development
A recent study conducted at GoKids found that interactive games elicited a similar cardiovascular training response commonly associated with more traditional activities such as running hard or jumping rope. According to McInnis, “The difference was that kids did not associate the interactive exercise sessions as being hard work, but rather, they simply thought of it as play.” The result, he says, was that “heart rates were high but their perceived levels of exertion were modest, which could result in longer exercise times and more calories burned compared to more traditional forms of exercise when performed by kids who are generally unfit.”
Other research at GoKids includes a partnership with several Boston public schools to evaluate the impact of integrating physical activity with new and innovative basic academic solutions. The primary aim of these ongoing studies is to identify the feasibility and effectiveness of strategies designed to achieve daily physical activity goals while simultaneously studying the impact on academic skills development and performance. “Imagine,” says McInnis, “if in the process of educating and motivating our youth to get physically fit we can also teach math or science concepts and such higher learning skills as teamwork and communication.” The overarching goal, he says, is to develop “real world and cost-effective solutions for simultaneously developing fitness and learning in a way that can be appropriately packaged for use by those who need it most.”
More than 17 percent of children in the United States are overweight, essentially twice as many youth as in the previous 15 year period. Those 12.5 million children are at greater risk for serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes and psychosocial troubles including feelings of depression and low self esteem. “We cannot wait any longer,” says McInnis. “We need to act collectively to make real changes or we stand to put a whole generation of kids at further future risk.”
Learn more:Kyle J. McInnis, Sc.D. Professor and Chair Department of Exercise and Health Sciences
Director, GoKids Boston
University of Massachusetts Boston
100 Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125
617-287-7495
Interview:
UMass Boston
Division of University Government Relations and Public Affairs
617-287-5300
How you can partner with GoKids Boston through a charitable gift:
Nan Cormier
Assistant Vice Chancellor of University Advancement
617-287-5326.