Girls Inc. of Jacksonville (GIJ) has been awarded a grant from the Ounce of Prevention Fund to support programming that will give girls in K – 5th grades access to nutrition and health lessons. GIJ will receive almost $110,000.
Girls Inc. of Jacksonville will use this investment to implement the OrganWise Guys curriculum for an entire school year. The program, when implemented correctly, is designed to help children learn about nutrition and health in creative ways and retain important information to take care of their bodies, reduce obesity and related diseases. It will address the health challenges girls in moderate and low socio-economic families face growing up such as poor nutrition, lack of physical activity and poor health outcomes.
The OrganWise Guys program will be delivered to120 girls at GIJ’s two elementary school partner sites – Parkwood Heights Elementary and Spring Park Elementary – as part of the afterschool program for one hour each week.
Girls Inc. of Jacksonville will utilize its national research-based Healthy Living curriculum to ensure that it is providing an age-appropriate holistic, healthy living program which includes social-emotional learning, mental health and wellness, healthy sexuality education, preparing for puberty, media influence on body image, body positivity, safety-awareness and drug and alcohol prevention.