The MEND Programme is returning to York to help kids get fit for free
Great news for residents of York as the City of York Council is giving away places on another MEND Programme and giving more children and families the chance to become fitter, healthier and happier!
The MEND Programme is the largest national scheme for tackling childhood overweight and obesity and City of York Council is delighted to offer the third course to the area. Children and families who have previously participated have achieved tremendous results. Here’s what some have to say about MEND:
- “Since being on MEND, I feel more wide awake and find it easier to concentrate – even my teachers have noticed that I’m happier.” – 9 year-old girl
- “I first started attending MEND over 4 years ago. These days, a lot of my friends don’t even know that I was obese four years ago, and its changed a lot for me. Since I’ve left MEND, I’ve started liking sport a lot more, going out with friends a lot more, playing the guitar, I’ve started doing a lot better in school. It helped my confidence, and I started making more friends, and the bullying stopped, and life was just much better.” – 15 year-old boy, 5 years after MEND
- “I would just like to say a big ‘Thank You’ for all your help and support on the course, I really do feel you came to our rescue at a time when I had all but given up. I had been trying to get help for a long time for my son but all the advice seemed to be was ‘put him on a diet’ (as if it’s as easy as that!). The course gave us lots of positive ideas and enabled us to tackle this issue together. I am really, really grateful.” - Mother
MEND stands for Mind, Exercise, Nutrition…Do it! and the course is targeted at helping children between the ages of 7 to 13 who are over the healthy weight range for their age and height to become healthier and active with the support of their parents or carers.
The fun MEND Programme takes place after school, twice a week for 10 weeks and will be running between 12th January 2010 and 18th March 2010 at Energise (formally Oaklands Sports Centre). The MEND Programme includes 20 x 2 hour group sessions.
Each session = 1 hr discussion + 1 hr physical activity (swimming, games etc)
- 2 Measurement sessions (pre and post)
- 2 Introduction and farewell (graduation) sessions
- 8 Mind sessions for parents (e.g. goals & rewards; modeling; stimulus control; bullying; fussy eating; self-confidence building)
- 8 Nutrition sessions for parents (e.g. label reading; portion sizes; types of fats and sugars; supermarket tour; recipe tasting)
- 18 Exercise sessions (land-based and water-based; graded; structured; non-competitive)
A limited number of places valued at up to £400 are available on the course completely free of charge thanks to the Local Area Agreement fund ‘Without Walls’. Places are being offered on a ‘first come, first served’ basis so register your interest NOW and call 01904 553440 or visit www.mendprogramme.org. A parent or carer must accompany each child to the twice weekly sessions and places must be booked in advance.
