The Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential GCAPP, addresses the overall health and wellness of tens of thousands of young people each year through five focus areas: physical activity & nutrition, teen pregnancy prevention, comprehensive sex ed, youth empowerment, and parent engagement. When our children do better, we all do better. Working with hundreds of community organizations across the state, GCAPP’s work ensures that young people have the information and motivation they need to avoid pitfalls, set life goals, maximize their potential, and progress into healthy adults. When youth are empowered, they positively impact their own lives, the lives of their peers, and whole communities.
When proper physical training is implemented, students increase non-cognitive abilities, connecting behavior, high self-esteem and overall well-being which gives them the motivation to perform and behave well. Factors such as self-control and school engagement are correlated with academic outcomes, financial stability in adulthood, and reduced crime.1
Conversely, the negative effects of poor or lack of physical training in adolescents is damaging to their present life and extends into adulthood where it significantly reduces the quality of life and ability to contribute to society. Additionally, absence of physical training and exercise can result in illicit drug use, cigarette smoking, underage drinking, school truancy, academic failure, teen pregnancy and juvenile delinquency.2
Cause of E.F.F.E.C.T Fitness, Inc. Partners with GCAPP in ways to form friendships and strong interpersonal skills through environments that empower youth to set goals and follow through with commitments, expanding their possibilities physically, socially and professionally.
Program Priorities/Risk Factors to be Addressed
Increase High School Graduation Rate
The Center for Evaluation and Education wrote in their Education Policy Briefing in 2008 that, “a large body of research indicates that students from particular backgrounds or who possess particular characteristics are more likely to drop out than others. In particular, minority students and students from low-income families are less likely to complete high school than their peers.” This is still the case. Although high school graduation rates increased over the past two academic years, Georgia still suffers with a 39.88$ drop-out rate in 2014, according to the GA Department of Education. This number represents thousands of young people who won’t be equipped to manage adult responsibilities. For this reason, G-FFECT Program desires to partner with local schools and present a variety of physical training to support high schools students and thereby increase high school graduation rates.
Reduce Tobacco Use
The Georgia Department of Public Health compiled data in 2014 pertaining to youth tobacco use This data indicates that approximately 8 percent or 27,000 middle school students in Georgia use tobacco. It further indicates that 19 percent or 79,000 high school students currently use tobacco and there is a growing prevalence of vapor products, of which the long term risks are still unknown. The US Surgeon General states that 80 percent of high school smokers will continue to smoke into adulthood putting them at risk for a variety of health ailments and the risk of dying at an earlier age. The programs provided by G-FFECT Program will naturally increase positive decision making skills and reduce the chances of Smoking due to regular physical activity as one of its many tools to reduce and prevent youth smoking among participants.
Reduce Illegal Drug Use
The National Institute on Drug Abuse understands the science of drug abuse and addiction and their 2014 research shows that drug use by high school students remains a serious risk factor.The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System monitors six types of health-risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth. The two factors of greatest concern are behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence as well as sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases including HIV. G-FFECT will provide information, resources and tools for youth to prevent, and/or act as an intervention to help youth develop good habits and make better choices.
Reduce Juvenile Delinquency and Recidivism
According to the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), more than 50 percent of youth offenders were arrested and identified as delinquent or convicted of a crime within three years of release, creating a 65 percent recidivism rate.7 The further revealed that there is a lack of community-based options with evidenced based programs for youth who have been involved with the juvenile justice system to grow, develop and correct their attitudes and actions. G-FFECT will provide the necessary life skills training to support youth development that will impact their lives today and into adulthood.
Reduce Teen Pregnancy
The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Adolescent Health recently revealed that Georgia ranked number 14 nationally for teen pregnancy among young women ages 15-19 in 2011 with a total of 13,170 births...
Our Partnership
Provides workshops, seminars, field trips, and utilize stimulating environments as a platform to mentor, lead and guide students through the program. Planned programs include:
Health and fitness
● Green Energy
● Yoga
● Mental Health
● Physical Health
● Food Choices (Aquaponics and Farming)
Life skills
● Life Coaching
● Conflict Resolution
● Sex Education
● Drug/Alcohol Prevention
● Financial Management And Cash Flow Training
● Social Etiquette
● Dress Codes
● Appropriate Internet Usage
● Social Media Awareness/Training/Etiquette
Target Market
Tuo-Be Youth Development Foundation will provide services for middle and high schools students who reside in three Metro Atlanta Counties (Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb).
School districts that will be targeted will be:
● Atlanta Public Schools
● Fulton County Schools
● DeKalb County Schools
● Clayton County
For additional ways you can get involved, email info@causeofeffect.fitness for more information.
References:
1Gutman, L. & Schoon, I. (2013) The impact of non-cognitive skills on outcomes for young people, Literature review. Institute of Education; University of London from.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/uploads/pdf/Non-cognitive_skills_literature_review_2.pdf
2Lieske J, Swearer S, Berry B. Mental health and rural schools: An integrated approach with primary care. Handbook of Culturally Responsive School Mental Health. Verlag New York: Springer; 2013. p. 147-55.
3Ibarraran, Pablo, Ripani, Laura, Taboada Bibiana, Villa, Juan Miguel and Brigida Garcia (2012). Life Skills, Employability and Training for Disadvantaged Youth: Evidence of a Randomized Evaluation Design, pp. 5 and 21.
4Cook, P., Dodge, K., Farkas, G., Fryer, R., Guryan, J., Ludwig, J., Mayer, S., Pollack, H., Steinberg, L. (2014). The (Surprising) efficacy of academic and behaviorial intervention with disadvantaged youth: Results from a randomized experiment in Chicago. National Bureau of Economic Research. White Paper 19862.
5International Youth Foundation, Strengthening Life Skills for Youth: A Practical Guide to Quality Programming (2008), pp. 42-43.
6Ibarraran et al. (2012), pp. 23-24. This large randomized impact evaluation looked at the labor market outcomes of the Dominican youth training program Juventud y Empleo targeting disadvantaged youth. According to ILO, “life skills contribute to a systematic development of attitudes; knowledge and skills patterns required for a job” and “enhance the abilities of trainees to […] translate technical skills into employment.” See Lobner, Sabine (1997). Life Skills for the World of Work: Experiences in South Africa, p. 1.Benson, P. L., & Scales, P. C.
(2011). Developmental assets. In R. J. R. Levesque (Ed.), Encyclopedia of adolescence (pp. 667-683). New York: Springer. Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1101. MacCann, C., Duckworth, A. L., & Roberts, R. (2009). Empirical identification of the major facets of conscientiousness. Learning and Individual Differences, 19, 451-458.
7Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). National Vital Statistics System. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-health-topics/reproductive-health/states/ga.html