Dallas may not have won the bid for Amazon HQ2, but business and community leaders across the state are already learning and looking ahead to prepare Texas for the next opportunity. Our state has much to offer, including a thriving economy, relatively low cost of living, and plenty of available real estate, but our people are always our greatest asset. The Cooper Institute is committed to building a better future, for Texas and for the rest of the country, by building healthier communities today. One area of concern is whether or not we have enough uniformed personnel to keep our communities and our country safe. Nearly 75% of young adults are not fit for military service due to weight, fitness, criminal history and other factors. This can also mean that they are not fit to be first responders. Our goal is to help raise kids that are healthy and strong enough for any kind of service at home or abroad.
BUILDING HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES
“[Children] are the future of this police department and they are our prospective police officers,” said Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall. “We have programs in place that encourage physical fitness and community engagement with our youth and we are committed to expanding those efforts.”
It starts with the health and wellness of our children, and it all started right here in Texas. In 1982, The Cooper Institute piloted the FitnessGram program in Richardson ISD with support from Campbell Soup Company to instill healthy habits early.
As the national test for the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, FitnessGram is the most widely used youth fitness assessment in the country, helping measure the physical fitness and aerobic capacity of more than 10 million students in 20,000 schools. Physical fitness assessments, like FitnessGram, give us a true picture of their overall health and ensure that our young adults are ready for service and ready for life. Healthy, active families build healthy, active communities. Business leaders, school leaders, legislatures, and The Cooper Institute can all work together to set students up for success in school and as a part of our future workforce. Their health and their success today is what our communities need to have healthy, productive and highly-skilled workers tomorrow. To learn more about our vision for building healthier communities, check out our recent publication from the Dallas Business Journal and the work we are doing in Dallas. Read or download it from the Issue app or at bit.ly/BuildingDallasTogether.
Screen time is detrimental to whole child health and vision The lack of physical activity and abundance of screen time are two of the biggest obstacles to good health that our children face.
Too much screen time can also have a detrimental effect on the overall physical health of our children. Today’s children are spending more and more time in front of a screen, much of it in the name of learning. In 2010, just over 28 percent of the world’s population was affected by nearsightedness and is expected to rise to nearly 50 percent by 2050. Additionally, computer vision syndrome is a real problem as kids 8-14 years old spend six to nine hours per day on digital devices.
How to decrease screen time and increase physical activity: Photo Credit: Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images
Today’s students are less active than ever before. A recent study in Preventive Medicine showed that American 19 year-olds are as inactive as the average 60 year-old. As a result of both inactivity and excessive screen time, childhood obesity is on the rise leading to conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, poor self-esteem, lack of socialization skills, and mental health problems as well as other physical problems like myopia. Sitting too much can be considered as dangerous of a risk factor for health as smoking, while excessive screen time is leading to a dramatic increase in nearsightedness. According to the Vision Impact Institute, physical activity can improve whole child health and vision.
Setting healthy limits and getting regular physical activity improves whole health and vision for the whole family. • Find out how much screen time students get at school or daycare. • Set limits on screen time at home. • Designate a few screen-free days each week. • Encourage kids to play outside and take frequent breaks. • Set screen-free zones in the bedroom or at the dinner table. • Model behavior by limiting your own screen time. • Make physical activity part of your family’s regular schedule. • Challenge your family to go Screen-Free from April 29 - May 5.
