Mission
Influencing Children’s Health locally and beyond
Our goals are far reaching. We anticipate that the new center will have a broad influence in Boston and beyond. UMass Boston and Children’s Hospital Boston plan to collaborate with BPS leaders to address important children’s health and fitness issues on a system-wide basis. The partners will also work closely with the City of Boston, which recently allocated substantial funding to address after-school and recreational sports programs. The types of services and activities the center plans to provide will be designed to complement those offered by the City. In addition, protocols (currently non-existent) will be established through the center and will be “exportable” to other healthcare providers, teachers, and community fitness and wellness professionals throughout the state, thus broadening the facility’s potential outreach capacity. In brief, the center is poised to become a critical resource for the Boston area and a model for the Commonwealth and the United States.
GoKids™ Boston will greatly enhance the capacity of UMass Boston and Children’s Hospital to perform collaborative scholarly research and training activities and to address the following objectives:
- To address health disparities related to inadequate physical activity, poor nutrition, and obesity in socio-economically diverse youth and families.
- To create partnerships with health centers, schools, institutions serving at risk youth to share protocols and strategies to address these health issues and expand the network.
- To identify evidence-based strategies that will effectively reduce sedentary behaviors in youth, a top priority in Healthy People 2010, American Academy of Pediatrics (2004).
- To develop effective activity rehabilitation protocols for youth recovering from serious medical conditions such as cancer, congenital heart disease, diabetes, and asthma.
- To develop a comprehensive practicum experience for students working with clients at GoKids™ Boston. This initiative could involve up 100-200 or more students per year.
- To create a longitudinal children’s health study comparable to the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study.
“By sharing what we learn with our communities and our schools, GoKids™ Boston will inspire health change throughout our Commonwealth and the nation.”
-Dean Greer Glazer,
UMass Boston College of Nursing and Health Sciences