Font Size:
The California Adolescent Nutrition and Fitness (CANFit) Program is a statewide, non-profit organization whose mission is to engage communities and build their capacity to improve the nutrition and physical activity status of California�s low-income African American, American Indian, Latino, and Asian/ Pacific Islander youth who are 10-14 years old. CANFit launched the Promoting Healthy Activities Together (P.H.A.T.) Campaign in 2002 to improve the nutrition and physical activity knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviors of African-American 10-14 year olds participating in after school programs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using a community-based approach, the P.H.A.T. campaign embraced music, dance, emceeing, and other elements of hip-hop culture (in community centers, schools, after school programs and other organized settings) to deliver important messages about healthy eating and physical activity. Over a two month period, 80+ youth from Bay Area programs and schools worked two to three hours each week with local hip-hop talent to incorporate their own nutrition and fitness messages into raps,artwork and hip-hop dance routines which were featured at the P.H.A.T. Community Health and Hip-Hop Showcase and featured in the P.H.A.T. video. As a follow up to the P.H.A.T. campaign, CANFit created a multi-media package to encourage community-based organizations to use hip hop to keep youth active and to educate them about the importance of healthy eating. Each package contains: 1) a video that includes 15 min. of educational messages and a 40 min. instructional hip hop dance routine, 2) a music CD that features original tracks, and 3) a 36-page guidebook filled with information, resources, and discussion activities.
