|
>View discussions about this entry Country: United States
Organization: Get Outta MY Face
Focus of activity - Advocacy
Year the initiative began (yyyy) - 2004
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
Define the innovation - What is the main focus (product, services, etc) of your innovation? Who are the primary beneficiaries? How does it make health and/or health care more affordable, accessible, and simpler to achieve/use? How does it differ from what currently exists in the market? Experts call for our youth to exercise more, just go play and get up off the couch - meanwhile PE budgets are being slashed, playgrounds and green space are decreasing while sedentary habits grow. One part of our "context for disruption" is to move daily exercise from PE to the regular classroom via Generation FIT (http://www.generation-fit.com ). This student led program provides 15-30 minute activity breaks daily and throughout the school day at minimal cost - while improving academic success and creating a critical mass of knowledgable student experts who lead the program. Get Outta My Face is a group of ten teens who are collecting 10,000+ digital media projects advocating smart food/beverage choices and active lifestyle - MADE BY KIDS FOR KIDS. While "big marketing" may have $12 billion to spend on over 44,000 per-young person views annually, the generation that made YouTube and MySpace what it is can counter that. With a website soon to be launched and two BLOGs (http://get-outta-my-face.blogspot.com and http://gomfcreative.blogspot.com ) youth are gathering their peers to create a culture of wellness. They are sick of being the fattest and most unfit generation ever. They don't want to be manipulated because of the 4100 billion in spending they control. Their health and their future is worth much more! Every generation has its cause for rebellion - and often the impact of that outrage drives positive change. The health of our youth is on the line - and the economical impact of their success could be profound. Take a look at the websites and the blogs to gain a clear understanding of youth turning the tables on the very media sabotaging their health and their future.
Context for Disruption: - Describe how your innovation is transforming traditional health or related systems in the short and long term. Our youth is the most overweight and unfit generation ever. While many believe this is a health issue, we have found it to be a "marketing" issue. With more than $12 billion annually spent advertising junk food focused on youth aged 4-18, that is the tip of the iceberg. While many initiative spend millions on revamping school lunches and the items in vending machines, "Get Outta My Face/Generation FIT" empowers the very youth beine affected with tools to change the culture. This project makes the proactive control of food/beverage and activity choices more accessible to the very group most in need of them - our youth. Currently, teachers and "the experts" work hard to teach awareness of food pyramid, dangers of HFCS, the need for more physical activity and such. Those strategies are not working and we can expect a $4 trillion healthcare bill on these related issues by 2015. Our youth are the most digitally connected, technologically savvy generation. Their voice and their efforts to lead lifestyle change via the very marketing media that has targeted them negatively WILL change their culture. Empowering youth as activists for their own health and well being could have a "bubble up" impact on our entire nation. We have both qualitative and quantitative data collected on the project with hundreds of young people - and the results back our predictions. We want to expand our impact.
Delivery Model - How does your innovation reach its target populations? What mechanism(s) (e.g., communications, distribution channels, etc.) do you have in place? What is your current market penetration? How do you measure this? At present our market penetration with Generation FIT is minimal, but growing exponentially. We are in over 200 schools. In 2006-2007 we gained quantitative research done in Maine and PA at no cost to us. This will be white papers published, presented at medical conferences and on the web. Get Outta MY Face is a grass roots effort begun by ten teens, now a non profit (as of March 2007). Our partner list is growing, is national and includes groups like PE4Life, ClearChoice HealthPlan and soon (hopefully) BCBS. On an annual budget of less than $2000 for 2006, Get Outta My Face has impacted hundreds of young people and created the website and blogs that will provide communication, more marketing projects and the ability to get the projects published and broadcast. By partnering with regional and local traditional network, a youth culture with more than 50 million MySpace sites and more than 60,000 projects uploaded to YouTube daily, we have the ability to virally spread a pro-health groundswell at little cost. There has never been a health initiative with such reach developed by teens for their generation. The media stories alone could develop into a documentary worthy of broad audience interest. We are filming every part of our process - from teens and youth peer mentoring exercise options in the classroom, to teens creating commercials and PSA's full of creativity, attitude and humor while advocating smart food/beverage/lifestyle choices. They can create what experts will not.
Key Operational Partnerships - What key partnerships have you established to make your disruptive innovation model possible? Who are your partners (business, social, government, other) and what are their roles? How central are these partnerships for your initiative. Get Outta My Face has organized as a non profit - not a small feat for ten teens. Local Boys & Girls Club has donated office space, while Clear Choice healthplan and local banks will fund initial needs. A partnership with Hygenic Corp (Thera-Band) will result in the teens creating a kids fitness kit called "Punkdajunk." This product will be offered to schools and youth groups as an alternative to fundraising that promotes candy, donut, soda and junk food sales. A web community with over 2 million subscribers will create a sponsorship for a media area within it www.whyville.net This will expand the reach of the project and provide a virtual community of 8-15 year olds learning about their eating habits (in the WHY EAT section) and then providing them with an avenue for adding their voice and energy to the mission.
Financial Model - Describe the financial model for your innovation. What percentage, if any, of the total operating costs does earned income (from products, services, or other fees) represent? The earned income model (Punkdajunk) is in the planning stages and will be funded by Thera-Band in Q3-4 2007. Projected percentage of earned income to be delivered back to Get Outta My Face for operating costs in 2007 is 15% with 2008 projections at $75%. We spent less than $4000 (all donated) in 2006 and to date 2007. In June 2007-June 2008 we project an operating budget of $40,000 as the teens begin to work fulltime over Summer 2007 and impact 200 local Boys & Girls Club members, thousands of youth nationally and broadcast at least 50 media projects.
Effectiveness - What has been the measurable impact of your project to date? How many people have benefited from your program in total? What policies, communities, or institutions have been influenced to make fundamental changes because of your work? In schools where Generation FIT was implemented students had approximately 45 more minutes of cardio and balance activity than before the program. Absentee rates were reduced by 22% on average. Students gained fitness as reflected by a reduction in mile run tiles, self reported weight loss and change in BMI. They also reported enjoying active exercise. Two quantitative studies (Maine and PA) will report on and desemminate their findings over Summer 2008. Those projects impact more than 1000 students. Get Outta My Face has been celebrated as innovative media in an OR Future Filmmaker event, and resulted in 16 of our best student made media projects to date (available on DVD on request and soon on our website). PE4Life is changing its policy of trying to get activity into schools and to the youth via PE classes. By awareness of the generation FIT program they are realizing the value of providing activty daily in the regular learning environment - in the classroom and led by the students themselves. They want to develop a critical mass of advocates for PE and the regular classroom teachers can be that voice.
Scaling up Strategy - What is your priority for the next 3 years and please describe why. Get Outta My Face plans to have more than 10,000 media projects within the next 12 months, and to publish and broadcast the best of them to a global audience - beginning with local media. Generation FIT will partner with PE4Life and reach at least 25% more than their existing 1000 schools. Punkdajunk (kids fitness kits) will start a dialog in fundraising circles aimed at youth - why sell candy, soda and junk food when kids can sell a kit that for $3-$5 can provide fitness benefits easily and daily.
Origin of the Initiative - Tell the personal story that will help people connect to your work. How did the initiative start? Was there a particular individual or event driving the idea? Tell the reader the story behind the innovation. Educator Judy Shasek has always harnessed the energy, expertise and time of youth in order to drive great programs within the educational system. Aware of the popularity of dance video games, she teamed with RedOctane to develop the Generation FIT program - the resulting change in the student peer mentors and fitness of entire schools drove the growth of that program. While demonstrating the program to a television production class in Oregon, the teens got curious about how they could make a difference. Their creativity and digital skills sparked Shasek's interest and Get Outta My Face was born. Many of the best participants in both programs are the type of students who are challenging to teachers, are in need of the very interventions they advocate and become powerful leaders and "teachers" by using their aptitudes and interests for good!
Contact Information:
Judy Shasek
Executive Director Get Outta MY Face (non profit corporation) Discussions about this entry |
Get Outta My Face: Generation FIT
|
|
As the Director of a course on Population Medicine, Prevention and Outcome Analysis for medical students, I struggle with what to teach medical students about how to perceive and pursue the problem of childhood and youth obesity. This approach will find its way into Team-based Learning sessions to challenge the students how they could introduce its potential to children and youth without being intrusive on their space.
The role of teen leadership and the power of teen-to-teen and teen-to-child communication have incredible potential, as noted. Hopefully this will be a very enabling "virus".
Get Outta My Face
Non Profit
We are fortunate that the local Boys & Girls Club in Bend donated office space for us. In return, we are responsible for providing programs for age 9-12 youth. Using the Generation FIT peer mentoring exercise model (www.generation-fit.com) the Get Outta My face team will teach why kids need to exercise and how to use active video games for exercise. They are also creating an alternative to the usual school fundraisers of candy, soda, donuts etc. They are partnering with Thera band to create a kids fit kit called, Punkdajunk. Schools can earn fundraising dollars while supporting fitness in a clever, kid-friendly manner. See www.punkdajunk.com for more info.
It is an intriguing idea of using social marketing in the internet to help kids learn to incorporate exercise into their daily routine. It is unclear exactly how the money will be used, and exactly what the potential measurable efficacy of the project is. However, it deserves further review as it relatively low cost, open-access, and high growth potential. Perhaps further clarification on the questions above would be greatly helpful.
Thank you!
Changemakers Team
Get Outta My Face
Non Profit
Do you need specific quantifiable measures? i can provide what we'll use.
Judy
Get Outta My Face
Non Profit
We will use the funds to maintain the process of gathering the digital projects and voice of youth. I am the executive director of the non profit on behalf of the ten Oregon teens doing the bulk of the project development, podcasting, blogging, websites, PR, marketing and networking. I do not get any payment or compensation for the average 20 hours I spend each week with the project - it is my "giving" to the community and also this health issue is important to me.
The teens all had full or part time jobs, especially during the summer. in order to keep staff for the non profit, we will allot a portion of the budget to pay them as staff - the will volunteer for the rest of their work. Most have at least 50 hours of volunteer time over the past 8 months on the project.
We have joined the local Chamber, and have created a PowerPoint (think Al Gore and AN ONCONVENIENT TRUTH) - on the topic of smart choices and how $12 billion in junk food advertising makes healthy choices a difficult pattern to live by. We need editing equipment and some professional support to create a feature length documentary telling the story of these young people and their method of impacting this health issue by harnessing the energy and involvement of the generation most negatively impacted. We do most work in-house (the teens do it), including web site design and infrastructure, creating projects and creating the video and films that will inpsire other youth. See our website for some examples: www.get-outta-my-face.com
$15,000 will pay for all staffing from now through Dec 2007, it will pay for professional editing/director support (in part) so we can have a film ready to be used by many agencies, schools and indie film festivals to get awareness out.
It is an intriguing idea of using social marketing in the internet to help kids learn to incorporate exercise into their daily routine. It is unclear exactly how the money will be used, and exactly what the potential measurable efficacy of the project is. However, it deserves further review as it relatively low cost, open-access, and high growth potential. Perhaps further clarification on the questions above would be greatly helpful.
Thank you!
Changemakers Team
Get Outta My Face
Non Profit
Actually the amount of funding that would give us the best "leg up" in Year 1 is $15,000, our form says 0. can we update that?
Dear Ms. Shasek:
Yes, you can log in, and you should see your entry as a link once you do. By following the link, you will see a page that you are able to edit.
Please do not hesitate to contact me directly with further questions!
Best,
Tyler Ahn
Changemakers