The ultimate goal for Elevate Student Health seems straightforward enough: Pass our evidence-based, comprehensive school wellness policy at the statewide level, ensuring that every student at every school across Oklahoma can reap the benefits of improved nutrition, increased physical activity, and greater access to safe drinking water. So we’ve started off by hosting events around the state to educate and gather the opinions of Oklahomans on the current status of access to wellness at their schools.

So far Elevate Student Health has participated in 10 events at basketball games, parent-teacher conferences, dodgeball tournaments, and other school events in every corner of the state: from Tyrone to Hugo, rural to urban, and everything in between. At the events, our YAHL youth advocates set up a table with swag giveaways like jump ropes, sweat bands, and water bottles, and ask students, faculty, and parents/guardians of students to complete a School Climate Survey to ask what they think about the quality of nutrition, physical activity, and water access at their school. We’ve already collected the opinions of over 3,500 Oklahomans to-date, and we’re not done yet!

YAHL youth advocates are leading events and taking action to create a healthier environment in their community.  At a recent parent-teacher conference event at Southeast High School in Oklahoma City, student Yocelyn Tapia Barreto said: "It was interesting to see how many people were willing to help out with the survey and learn why we were doing it". At the same event, student Alyssa Williamson added, "It was a good experience to get the chance to get out and be a voice of our program". We’ve got quite a ways to go until we achieve our statewide policy change, but in the meantime, we’re educating others and building baseline data to let us know where we are and how we can move forward.

By: Alex Handfinger, Senior Account Manager