INTRODUCTION:
As the awareness of learning disabilities continues to increase as well as the number of specialized tutoring services in response, the need for affordability and accessibility to such programs becomes a primary concern. Although there are many social conditions that affect learning disabilities, one that we address with this program is the alarming increase in the number of children and adolescents in our community that are overweight or obese. This condition impacts school attendance and academic achievement. According to the Center for Disease Control the number of children and teens (ages 6 to 19) who are overweight, has tripled to nearly 9 million. Physical inactivity and poor diet are major contributors to the rise in cardio vascular disease, now the leading cause of death in America, and an alarming increase in diabetes. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion reports that daily enrollment in high school physical education classes has declined from 42 percent to 25 percent. Nearly half of youth 12-21 years of age are not vigorously active on a regular basis. The results of the spring 2007 Physical Fitness Test conducted through the California Dept. of Education indicated that only 25% of children tested met the minimum fitness standards to be considered physically fit. Studies show there is compelling evidence that links physical fitness with academic achievement.

PROGRAMING:
We believe that there is a direct relationship (a cause and affect) between the health of a child and their ability to learn. We also believe that there is a significant social environment void for children that has a direct relationship (a cause and affect) which inhibits a child’s ability to learn. Help Kids USA addresses all these issues by putting together programming that directly goes after a child’s health by creating amazing programming that literally motivates the children we plan to affect; thus assisting to fill a very important social aspect. We do this with the following:

FIT FOR GOLD is a program where we team up with School District(s), Fitness Facilities and other health and fitness providers, and local Sports figures. The program takes high school young adults and puts them through a program where they learn exercise, nutrition, personal health issues and then teaches them to in turn train and mentor grade school children.

Training of the high school children is conducted directly at Fitness Facilities. This training is done with Certified Personal Trainers, Aerobics instructors, Self-Defense instructors, various health professionals and guest appearances of Sports Figures. The training is done over a three month period; upon which, the students in turn go to grade schools and teach (with our assistance) programming whereupon they will receive school credits. After successfully training the grade school children, there is a graduation for all.

Parents are also encouraged to attend and support the knowledge that their children are gaining and to incorporate such into their day to day lives.

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMING AND MENTORING: We look to this area to continue what we started with FFG. Upon graduating from the program, maintaining a minimum GPA of 2.0 and maintaining an acceptable attendance record, students will have access to the Fitness facility for certain time periods, have access to specific self defense classes, and other programming.

VARIOUS SPORTS SPECIFIC CAMPS: We are working closely with WMG to put on basketball and other sport specific camps for the region. These camps will all be associated to local Sports Figures who will not only put their name behind the endeavor, but assist in raising monies, be guests at the camps and special events.

The Fit For Gold program has been running successfully for four years, affecting thousands of kids in the City of Hawthorne, and most recently in the City of Commerce California. School Districts involved include Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lennox and now Los Angeles Unified. Partners to this program have been Gold’s Gym, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Friday Night Live/Los Angeles County Office of Education, A World Fit for Kids, Inc., National Handball Association, SOS Mentoring and the California Youth Karate.

Help Kids USA is now taking this first step in programming and adding the After School programming and mentoring and the Sports Camps. Further, we are orchestrating all programming for Fit For Gold and coordinating such in specific regions.

As Gold’s Gym Hawthorne actually started this program, we are going to start our first region in the Los Angeles Area. We will have six to seven Gold’s Gym facilities to perform this programming, with one main location to be the Sports Specific Camp location.

All regions will have a Regional Director. This Director will coordinate all programming, school involvement, fitness club involvement, volunteers and fund raising events. All other staffing needs are performed with our partners. Gold’s Gym has staff that will provide the Certified Personal Trainers, the Aerobics Instructors, Martial Arts instructors and obviously the locations. We will also coordinate with local universities and colleges to utilize students who are needing “time” spent with such endeavors to get their degrees to assist with our programming. Accordingly, staff expenses are very limited; yet highly trained.

With this programming in place we know that a metro region will affect close to 10,000 high school students directly along with another 15,000 to 20,000 grade school students each year. The cost per year to run this program is estimated to be $1.5 million to $2.0 million per year, per region. Our goal over the next five years is to be in 10 regions.

Individuals committed to be on the Board:

Fabian Nunez, former Speaker of the State Assembly of California
Jorge Nunez, Assistant to Assembly member Kevin Deleon
Larry Guidi, Mayor of Hawthorne
Maxine Waters, US Congress woman (tentative)
Jan Vogel, Director of the South Bay Work Investment Board