Partner of the Month: HealthMPowers
If your school has signed up for Power Up for 30, you’ll get to know HealthMPowers. The Georgia-based organization became the training partner for the Power Up for 30 movement in 2013, two years after developing a partnership with Georgia SHAPE. The program continues to work statewide to help schools find ways to become healthy parts of their communities.
According to its mission, HealthMPowers aims to “promote healthy behaviors and environments by empowering students, school staff and families to improve health and academic achievement.” To fulfill that mission, HealthMPowers provides services, training and technical support to enable schools to make sustainable changes to improve health at school and in life for students, staff and families. HealthMPowers currently works in more than 90 elementary and middle schools in 24 school districts throughout Georgia, serving more than 54,000 students and their teachers, school staff and family members.
The program’s work with Power Up for 30 is no exception. Through a one-day training session and three follow up online classes, HealthMPowers helps schools identify practical ways they can integrate 30 extra minutes of physical activity into the school day. HealthMPowers helped Georgia SHAPE host the first Power Up for 30 trainings in January 2014.
HealthMPowers also works to improve healthy eating and physical activity in Georgia by using the science-based guidelines for schools established by CDC. HealthMPowers:
- Promotes healthy eating through classroom lessons and supportive school environments
- Provides nutrition education that is developmentally appropriate, fun and participatory
- Provides continuous in-service training for staff and engages families
- Coordinates nutrition education and physical activity with school food service, physical education and others in the school
Before the Power Up for 30 partnership, HealthMPowers worked with the Georgia Department of Public Health and the Georgia Department of Education to successfully train Georgia physical education teachers and schools how to effectively implement Fitnessgram, the statewide standardized health-related fitness program.
