Girls attending Warren G. Harding Middle School, 2000 Wakeling St., will be able to join in a new health and fitness program after class hours.
The C.H.I.C.K.S. (Creating Healthy Informed Confident Knowledgeable Selves) was organized by Joan Todd, a teen program coordinator at the Carson Valley Children’s Aid Frankford Neighborhood Center, and recently received $5,000 in grants from non-profits.
The program, which will offer girls fitness training, dance exercise and water exercise as well as heath and nutrition workshops and activities, will be announced during Harding’s back-to-school night on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 5:30 p.m.
The program will run from 3:15 to 5:45 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
“Obesity is more than just fat, especially for impoverished women and girls,” said Janice Johnson Dias, president of the New York-based GrassROOTS Community Foundation, the organization that recently awarded the grant.
Childhood obesity is a major health concern in the United States, particularly for the black community. Nationally, one in three adolescent African-American girls is obese, Todd said in a news release.
GrassROOTS unites the talents of Temple University graduate Dr. Janice Johnson Dias and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter of the Philadelphia band The Roots.
Through partnership with Black Rose Foundation and Glaxo Smith Kline and sponsorship of local health programs like C.H.I.C.K.S, GrassROOTS Community Foundation has launched a national initiative to educate communities about a range of physical, mental and sexual risks. GrassROOTS supports local health programs working to address and eliminate these risks.
To learn more about the program, visit www.grass-rootsfoundation.org • •
