Northside

Family YMCA
4207 Old Brook
Rd.
Richmond, VA.
Jordan Cohen
Nicole Costanzo
Rachel Danneman
Maureen Kopf
Ashley Resnick

Overview of Community
Demographics:
Total population: 321,924
Population density: 1304/sq.mile
(high)
Race: White alone (55%), Black
(30.1%),
Asian (7.9%), Hispanic/Latino(5.4%),
Amer. Indian (0.4%), Hawaiian
(0.1%)
Education ( age 25):
High school : 90.1%
B.S. degree or higher: 39.7%
Language other than English
spoken at home: 14.2%

Overview of Community
Economic Data:
Median household income in zip code 23227 in 2013 was $39,193
Median housing costs:
Homes - $ 1,497 /month
Apartments- $ 834/ month
11.3 % Living in poverty:
White (8.1%), Black (21%), Hispanic/ Latino (23.2%),
American Indian (13.2%), Other(23.6%)
Unemployment rate: Approx. 6%
Environmental Data:
Executive Director Theresa Johnson states that the YMCA serves very high poverty families,
as well as upper-middle class families.
Food access: Grocery stores - 71, Supercenters 4, Convenience stores - 142
Health Resource Data:
Ms. Johnson also states that health resources, such as health insurance, are inadequate for this
community.
Health care coverage (Age 18-64): 15% of people surveyed by Virginia Dept. of Health stated
they did not have health insurance. 11.4% also stated doctors were inaccessible, due to the
high cost of health care.
Child mortality (0-14 years):
Adult mortality:
Low Birth Weight
Heart Disease
Congenital Abnormalities
Malignant neoplasm
Birth trauma
Cerebrovascular Disease
Morbidity:
Cerebrovascular Disease
Cancer
Diabetes

Community Partnership:
Theresa Johnson
Position? How did you find yourself
working in this area?

Executive Director at Brook Rd. YMCA

Oversees all activities of the facility.
Started working in philanthropy and for
non-profit organizations about 20 years
ago, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of
America and different YMCAs.
Started at Brook Rd. 3 years ago.

Community Partnership:
Theresa Johnson
Economic assistance?

Surrounding area: Has a very high

poverty rate
Within a 1-2 mile radius: Upper,
middle-class families
Families work with Department of
Social Services to help offset
membership prices.
Theres an annual campaign at
the YMCA to raise money for
membership assistance.
Sliding-scale membership prices
are based on residents income.

Environment

Close-knit community; YMCA staff

have established close
relationships with their members.

Community Partnership:
Theresa Johnson
Community Needs
There are inadequate
health resources, such
as health insurance,
which means that
members seek help
only when it becomes
an emergency.

Long term goal for the

facility is to provide free
outdoor family activities,
such as Zumba.

Gyms can be intimidating,

so providing something
fun and outdoors would
allow members to be
more comfortable.

Assessment Summary
Community Strengths

Everyone works together for the greater

good of the community.

Community Weaknesses

No health resources/insurance.
Wait until situation is emergent before
seeking care.

Service Learning Activity

Overview
Target Population

2nd & 3rd grade students

enrolled in the YMCA afterschool program on Brook Rd.

Days/Hours Worked at the YMCA

Sept. 29 from 3-5pm

Methods for Evaluation

Q&A during each activity

Visual inspection of hand
washing using the glow germ
Student responses on Healthy
Choices & exercise
worksheets and during Family
Food game

Teaching Materials:

Fresh fruit, toothpicks, gold fish

(Healthy Snacks)
Glow germ, soap, hand sanitizer
(Hand-Washing)
Flip chart w/ stand & colored
markers (My Plate)
Small table w/ 2 bells, 20
questions (Family Food game)
Student handouts(Healthy
Choices, Exercise, Take-Home
Packets)

Data Collection: Healthy

Choices & Exercise handouts,
score keeping during Family
Food game
Evaluation: Q&A, visual
inspection of hands, student
responses
Tangible Resources: all items
listed under teaching
materials
Financial Resources: $ 32 from
students personal funds to
purchase supplies

Community Involvement

We utilized the YMCA staffs love for their students, cooperative

spirit, enthusiasm, and commitment to improving the health of
their members, to plan our service-learning project.
Our group leader contacted the YMCAs youth activities director,
Jade McMannen, to discuss the after-school programs needs and
choose health-related activities that would be appropriate for 2 nd
& 3rd grade students.
On the day of our project, Jade escorted us to our room & the
students teacher, Horace, assisted us in re-arranging the
furniture to meet our needs.
Jade and Horace were also present during the implementation of
our service-learning project to discipline students, assist them
with activities, and provide positive feedback.
Knowing that parents would be interested in their childs health &
well being, we gave each student a take-home packet filled with
valuable health information and fun activities to share with their
parents.

All of these activities utilized the communitys primary strength:

Everyone working together for the greater good of the community

Evaluation During Activity

Target Population:
Method for tracking studentslevel of understanding:
Tracked number of correct responses during Q&A
sessions and their answers on student handouts.

Challenges:
Expected challenges:
Noisy, active children with low attention spans.
Plans to overcome challenges included carefully
planning short activities & making group
assignments in advance, prepping snacks and
handouts at home, arriving early to set up
stations, and explaining house rules before
beginning the teaching session.

Evaluation (contd.)
What challenges occurred ?
Some children were loud, talked over one
another, and didnt stay in their seats.
Was your plan appropriate ?
Yes. We reinforced the rules and refocused the
studentsattention, when needed.
What changes were made to the activity ?
We completed one activity before starting
another one, to avoid confusion.
Divided the group in half to keep things
organized (Ex: hand-washing activity).
Organized Healthy Plate activity by
placing pieces of fruit & toothpicks on
each childs plate, rather than having
them pick out their own fruit.
Group members worked one-on-one with
students at their table.

Evaluation After Activity

Community Members:
2 African American adult males
1 African American adult female
4 African American female students
4 African American male students
2 Caucasian male students
Objectives: All objectives were met.
Hand-washing:
5 kids washed with soap & water
5 kids used hand sanitizer
All of the children understood that using soap and water
is more effective than hand sanitizer for removing
germs.
MyPlate:
All 10 students were able to list the five food groups on
MyPlate, before and after the teaching.

Exercise:

4/10 identified which activity

utilized the most muscles
6/10 identified which activity
utilized the least amount of
muscles

Family Food Game:

Group was split into two teams

to answer nutrition questions.
Team 2 The Dominators
answered the majority of the
questions correctly.

Actual Experience:

All participants enjoyed the

activities.
Teachers stated that the kids
loved and really needed fun
learning activities about
exercise and healthy snacks.
10/10 students raised their
hands when asked if they had
enjoyed the activities.

Conclusion
The

children really enjoyed preparing

healthy snacks, because they were able
to make cars and butterflies out of fruit
and learn about foods they should eat vs.
foods they should avoid.

For

the My Plate activity, we could have

passed out plates and had the children
label their own plates with the five food
groups. This would have given them a
break and helped to refocus their
attention.

Lessons learned:

Importance of serving the community

Being prepared
Selecting age-appropriate teaching strategies
Ways to modify your lifestyle, in order to stay healthy

References
Bilich, K. A. (2015). 10 Benefits of physical activity. Parents. Retrieved from
http://www.parents.com/fun/sports/exercise/10-benefits-of-physical-activity/
Henrico County, Virginia (VA). (2012). Retrieved November 13, 2015, from
http://www.city-data.com/county/Henrico_County-VA.html
Http Us.ms.com W Ygo Onesearch?_trsc Attosus - CakesToBake
... (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2015, from
http://cakestobake.com/articles/kml9876/HttpUs.ms.comWYgoOnesearch_trscAttosus.html
Pictures provided from Jordan Cohen, Nicole Costanzo, Rachel Danneman, & Ashley Resnick.
Top 15 causes of death in Virginia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2015, from
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/top-15-causes-of- death-virginia
United States Census Bureau. (2014). Quick facts beta: Henrico County, Virginia. Retrieved from
http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045214/51087,00
United States Dept. of Agriculture. (2015). My Plate kids place. Retrieved September 15, 2015, from
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/kids/ActivitySheets.html
Virginia Department of Health. (2012). Virginia home equity report 2012. Retrieved from
http://www.vdh.virginia.gov/OMHHE/healthequity/documents/12.11.07-State-of-HealthEquity.pdf
Virginia Department of Health, Division of Policy and Evaluation. (2013). Routine checkup by health
district, Virginia, 2013 [Behavioral risk factor surveillance survey]. Retrieved from
http://www.vdh.state.va.us/ofhs/brfss/brfss_tables/5.%20Health%20Care%20Access%20&%20Cover
age/18.%20VBR13%20CHECKUP1%20%28Routine%20Checkup%20Health%20Districts.pdf
Yahoo image search results page. (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2015, from
http://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search:_ylt=A0LEVjcC4xJWnkQACNMnnIlQ?p=zumba
kids&fr=yhs-mozilla-002&fr2=piv-web&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002