CATCH Kids Club Collaborative Increases Parent Involvement in At-Home CATCH Activities

Approximately 16% of Oklahoma’s youth aged 10–17 years were overweight/obese in 2007, ranking Oklahoma 17th in the nation for childhood obesity. In addition, Oklahoma ranked 50th in the nation for fruit and vegetable consumption. Coordinated physical activity and nutrition were not considered a priority in after-school programs. However, physical activity and nutrition became a focus of the Oklahoma State Department of Health through the Strong and Healthy Oklahoma initiative and was identified as a strategic priority for the agency. The Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) Kids Club was introduced as a 3-year pilot project in 20 after-school sites in Oklahoma at the beginning of the 2007 school year. Data showed that parental involvement was an essential part of sustainability but was not working well across the sites. A team was put together to work on increasing parent involvement and encourage at home CATCH related activities by 10%. Many initiatives were implemented across sites to encourage parental involvement such as distributing monthly activity calendars, quarterly newsletters, parent factsheets, and tips on nutrition and physical activity; sending home nutritious recipes and a CATCH Kids Club cookbook; and implementing parent focus groups to find out what parents wanted. Due to these initiatives, there was an 11% increase in parents' sharing the importance of fruits and vegetables with their children, and 33% of parents reported participating in CATCH activities at home with their children.