community park-based programs for health promotion: the fit2lead prospective cohort study

Conditions: Anxiety; Wellness, Psychological; Overweight or Obesity; Hypertension; Prehypertension; Low Physical Fitness

Summary: the fit2lead prospective cohort study examines the effects of a park-based youth mental health and resilience afterschool program on youth participant mental health, resilience, physical fitness, and violence prevention outcomes. duke will perform a secondary analysis of the data collected as part of the fit2lead prospective cohort study run by miami-dade county parks and recreation.

the fit2lead prospective cohort study examines the effects of a park-based youth mental health and resilience afterschool program on youth physical and mental health and resilience, communication, and problem-solving skills training for underserved youth aged 12 to 17 years through an interdisciplinary collaboration among miami-dade department of parks, recreation and open spaces (mdpros) miami-dade county (mdc) juvenile services department, mdc public schools, mdc police department, university of miami, florida international university, and other community-based partners. fit2lead consists of 2 phases initiated simultaneously in 2015. for youth aged 12 to 14 years, fit2lead is offered after school monday through friday from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm at 12 mdc parks for participants in under resourced neighborhoods and based on area-level youth crime and neighborhood poverty. fit2lead runs september through june at no charge, and provides daily academic support, sports and recreation, meditation, stress resilience, and life skills-focused workshops. each park serves anywhere from 2 to 9 feeder schools within these neighborhoods (a target population of 34 000 youth residents aged 12-17 years), and transportation from schools to parks is provided at no cost within a 3-mile radius of a program park. fit2lead participants can also enroll in the mdpros youth summer camp at no charge. phase ii of fit2lead is for youth aged 15 to 17 years and entails a year-round paid internship and 3-hour weekly enrichment, resilience, and life skills workshops. daily entry-level part-time interns receive $9 per hour (approximately 500 total paid hours per year; total salary approximately $4000 per participant, per year). work assignments support mdpros operations and recreation staff. interns rotate every 8 weeks for exposure to different job opportunities, supervisors, and mentors. phase 1 participants who reach age 15 years and are awaiting an internship placement can remain in phase 1 until a position opens or can be transferred to another internship program within the mdpros.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * all participants enrolled in the miami-dade fit2lead study will be included in this secondary analysis * aged 12-17 years, residing in miami-dade county exclusion criteria: * anyone not enrolled in the miami-dade fit2lead study will be excluded from this secondary analysis * aged \&lt;12 or \&gt;17 years, not residing in miami-dade county, cannot read and speak in english

Keywords: youth adolescent afterschool parks and recreation mental health physical helath resilience violence prevention