Population Services International
Teen Advocates Join the Childhood Obesity Battle

by Misty Koger, Coordinator of Youth Development & Training

“Lunch for most of my friends is Hot Cheetos and a Coke. Or maybe ice cream. We mostly snack; we don’t really eat lunch. If it’s food, it’s, like, a hotdog…I don’t think anybody does exercise, except for PE, but even then we don’t really do anything.” ( Noemi, 16, Watsonville High Student)

Comments like Noemi’s are all too common in Santa Cruz County. According to the California Healthy Kids Survey administered in Santa Cruz County schools, 13% of seventh graders in the county are overweight and another 17% are at risk of becoming overweight. Population Services International (PSI), an international non-profit organization with offices in Watsonville, is crafting an innovative response to the growing childhood obesity problem. Through a grant from the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust, PSI is in the early phases of implementing ENRG, a comprehensive, culturally-sensitive adolescent campaign based on PSI’s highly effective “Teen Advocates” peer education model.

Developed by PSI in conjunction with a nationally recognized design firm, the ENRG Campaign utilizes peer-to-peer communication to educate teens about nutrition and physical fitness in teens’ own language—a language that emphasizes ways for teens to make healthy decisions during their everyday lives, such as what constitutes 60 minutes of physical fitness, or how to make healthier fast food choices. The campaign includes educational peer-led workshops with interactive games like Hollywood Health Squares, policy advocacy in schools, a media campaign with posters and print ads, and community events designed to promote community- wide physical activity and nutrition education, like a school-wide Pedometer Challenge.

In its early stages of implementation, the ENRG Campaign is already receiving positive feedback from youth. Of the peer education workshops, teens who’ve participated have said: “Chips have way more fat than I thought!” “A lot of things contain too much sugar and fat. I should learn to read the label!” Youth in two local high schools are implementing workshops and community events in their schools. By the end of the ENRG Campaign, over 2,000 Pajaro Valley teens will be reached with messages about physical fitness and healthy eating and be able to identify healthy nutrition and physical fitness choices as measured by PSI’s Youth Intercept Survey in Watsonville.

Responses to the childhood obesity epidemic must come from a range of voices as varied and complex as the problem itself. Through the ENRG Campaign and with support from PVCHT, Population Services International is proud to lend its voice to this community’s response, and to lead the efforts to include teens themselves in crafting solutions to this important public health issue.