Healthy Moves

Healthy Moves is a nonprofit organization bringing movement, fitness and fun to elementary students. Due to school budget cuts, many physical education programs have been eliminated. Healthy Moves trainers work with students and their teacher to demonstrate fitness activities and provide a model for the teacher to use in future PE classes. Healthy Moves provides fitness formats that can be used by all teachers of grades one through five.

Physical activity supports healthy social, cognitive, and physical development in children. National experts recommend that elementary-age children get 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day. Yet, research shows that children are failing to reach even minimal benchmarks for age-appropriate physical activity. Among kids that are age 6-11, 13 percent are now obese, and this unhealthy number has been increasing.

Since 2011, Healthy Moves has impacted over 19,000 elementary students from 20 of the 24 Title 1 schools in Lane County, where one hundred percent of students are defined as low-income. These students are without full-time PE teachers, and they lack opportunities for organized sports or developmentally targeted physical exercise. They also come from the schools with the highest racial diversity in Oregon.

We connect to schools through seven main programs: 1. Trainer in Residence uses professional trainers to teach physical education to students while training their classroom teachers; 2. Jumpstart is a before-school program that helps students focus on academics; 3. PE Recess ensures that all students exercise during recess; 4. Trainer in Residence 2 teaches advanced skills such as dance, tumbling, and track; 5. Prep Time PE gives teachers back their prep time while keeping students active; 6. Healthy Assessments assist schools in completing mandatory fitness assessments for every student; and 7. Healthy Moves in the Community programs give families opportunities to stay active outside of the classroom.