CATCH

On September 5, 2007 over 60 Maplewood school district physical education teachers, classroom staff, and local YMCA personnel joined together at Jefferson Elementary School in Maplewood for a training in the CATCH program.

Judy LoBianco, Supervisor of Health and Physical Education for the South Orange-Maplewood School District , attended the training along with classroom and physical education staff within her district. She remarked, " When I first decided to bring CATCH® to the district, I did so because it is the only program that I saw that offered so many facets of a Coordinated School Health Program. When our staff at Jefferson was trained, it was a day for people to come together in ways in which they had never done before, sharing the one common goal that everyone always agrees on: healthy, active children. Everyone felt that they came away with something for themselves, their families and their students. The result is a culture and climate of health and wellness for Jefferson School . It is a program that has been enthusiastically embraced and it has brought together all the stakeholders in child health - from community members to parents, administrators, cafeteria workers, teachers and students. Together, Jefferson 's school community is successfully modeling for and teaching children the importance of a healthy, active lifestyle."

In only two short months after the training, LoBianco states that there are already positive changes happening at the school. "We measure success with a child that decides to try a new fruit or vegetable. We measure success with the parents who decided to do a walk-a-thon as a PTA activity that supports the goals and objectives of CATCH®. We measure success with the teachers who decided to dress up as "GO," or healthy food, on Halloween. Healthy children are betters learners and at Jefferson we are working together to make that happen."

With financial help and support from the Illinois Department of Public Health CATCH has been quickly spreading throughout the state. The program is being overseen by Jamie Gates and Jo Ambrose who are the Youth Program Coordinators. Their job is to sign up schools, train staff, and provide whatever support is necessary to maintain the program. We recently visited some CATCH Schools in Illinois and discovered that the program has been an incredible success. Click on the picture below to see how it's done in the great state of Illinois.

We visited Missoula, Montana to see how they have implemented the CATCH Program in their area schools. What we found was both unique and very effective, in that it's not just one sponsor of the program, but many. This is truly a coordinated effort in Missoula. Click on the Missoula picture below to see how CATCH is working in Montana!

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