The Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth is hosting trainings across the sate. The trainings are open to anyone in the field of prevention. Each training workshop is a day-long and only costs $25! The $25 includes the cost of the training and a continental breakfast and lunch. Below is the list of the trainings for March and April. To register, click on the following link: http://www.healthyyouthva.org/training/
The Training Opportunities page will be displayed listing all available workshops with dates and locations. To review the course descriptions and register, either click on the course title or the MORE INFORMATION & REGISTRATION link. Simply fill in the requested information and click on the submit button.
March 30 - Richmond - Advanced Cultural Competency
March 31 - Richmond - Advanced Prevention
April 7 - Roanoke - Advanced Prevention
April 8 - Richmond - Measuring Youth Program Outcomes
April 13 - Northern Va - Assessing Student Learning
April 14 - Richmond - Assessing Student Learning
April 14 - Richmond - Fidelity Based Adaptations
April 20 - Richmond - Youth Helping Youth
April 27 - Tidewater Area - Facilitation Skills
April 28 - Richmond - How To Make Tobacco A Priority Issue
April 29 - Roanoke - Identitying the Potential of Youth
April 30 – Roanoke - Managing Behaviors In Youth Programs
Monday, March 22, 2010
Southeast Regional Advisory Board Members
The Regional Advisory Board Members from across the state recently met to discuss current future funding, program status and to receive updated training for the current proposal process.All Board members were recognized for their outstanding service to the Foundation. Congratulations to all members for your service - You are all greatly appreciated!!
In attendance: Kathleen Watson, Cindy Palmaz, Terrina Thomas, Kristina Beavers, Renee Rountree, Robert Alpino, Janis Dauer, Sandra Riggin, Steve Kast, Joee Hoxter, Martha Muniz, Brenda Holden, Anthony Armistead and John Mack. Absent: Michelle Donovan and Lisa Newman
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution
For those who haven’t heard, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver will be hosting a new show called “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” which premieres Friday March 26 at 9 p.m. on ABC.
Jamie Oliver is here to start a revolution. The impassioned chef is taking on obesity, heart disease and diabetes in the USA, where our nation's children are the first generation NOT expected to live as long as their parents. Now that's scary!
Jamie is inviting viewers to take a stand and change the way America eats, in our home kitchens, schools and workplaces with the thought-provoking new series, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which debuts FRIDAY, MARCH 26 9/8c on ABC. In the six-part series, Jamie heads to Huntington, West Virginia. Why? Well, Huntington has been called the unhealthiest city in America. Jamie wants to do something about that. Through his efforts in this one town, he hopes to start a chain reaction of positive change across the country.
For more information visit the show's web site:
http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution
Jamie Oliver is here to start a revolution. The impassioned chef is taking on obesity, heart disease and diabetes in the USA, where our nation's children are the first generation NOT expected to live as long as their parents. Now that's scary!
Jamie is inviting viewers to take a stand and change the way America eats, in our home kitchens, schools and workplaces with the thought-provoking new series, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, which debuts FRIDAY, MARCH 26 9/8c on ABC. In the six-part series, Jamie heads to Huntington, West Virginia. Why? Well, Huntington has been called the unhealthiest city in America. Jamie wants to do something about that. Through his efforts in this one town, he hopes to start a chain reaction of positive change across the country.
For more information visit the show's web site:
http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Play is an important part of childhood
LIPause for a moment and remember how you played as a child.
Did you make mud pies, build forts, hold tea parties with imaginary friends or play kickball, baseball or some other sport in the backyard or a nearby empty lot?
Whatever you did to "make" your own fun, do your children have similar opportunities?
Leaders of the Alliance for Childhood, a national nonprofit organization of health professionals and educators, believe play helps children develop socially, academically and physically.
These days, said Joan Almon, executive director of the Maryland-based Alliance, which focuses on children's health and well-being, many consider childhood play unimportant. Yet the Alliance believes unstructured, imaginative play can help grow a successful adult.
The organization also believes play will be critical to curbing childhood obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 9 million American children ages 6 to 19 are overweight or obese.
First lady Michelle Obama launched a campaign this month called "Let's Move" to combat childhood obesity; however, the Alliance says play is the missing ingredient.
Play does not include time spent in front of the computer, mastering video games or participating in organized sports, Almon said.
"Video games have a playful element, but most games do not really spark children's creativity, and that's one of the things authentic play does -- their imagination gets stronger, their social capacity gets stronger, their aggression levels go down," she said.
Organized sports can be great, she said, but the kids are being directed by adults.
"The way children used to play sports, they created rules or adapted rules as they needed to. What we have now is children starting at a young age to become competitive, so that in adolescence or even in college, when their bodies are really ready for sports, too many are burned out."
The Alliance advocates that children have at least 60 minutes of unstructured play every day.
Parents can make play a priority by:
•Getting children outside. Take them to the park or the backyard and let them run free while you enjoy a book.
•Cutting back on media (such as TV and video games) and reading fairy tales, myths and legends that get their imagination going.
•Giving them materials with which they can create fun stuff -- hammers, nails and plywood for older children to build a fort or tree house; sheets and clothespins to make a tent; ropes, cardboard boxes, etc.
•Allowing them to fill their own time during play dates with made-up games or activities.
It may take courage on a parent's part to pull back from some structured extracurricular activities to make this happen, but the long-term benefits will be worthwhile, she said.
"Today's children are being asked to behave in very grown-up ways and not being given the chance for the natural experience of childhood. They need time for play and for reflection. You get to know yourself and the world around you in childhood, through the informal lessons in life that sometimes come through play."
Stacy Hawkins Adams
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Did you make mud pies, build forts, hold tea parties with imaginary friends or play kickball, baseball or some other sport in the backyard or a nearby empty lot?
Whatever you did to "make" your own fun, do your children have similar opportunities?
Leaders of the Alliance for Childhood, a national nonprofit organization of health professionals and educators, believe play helps children develop socially, academically and physically.
These days, said Joan Almon, executive director of the Maryland-based Alliance, which focuses on children's health and well-being, many consider childhood play unimportant. Yet the Alliance believes unstructured, imaginative play can help grow a successful adult.
The organization also believes play will be critical to curbing childhood obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 9 million American children ages 6 to 19 are overweight or obese.
First lady Michelle Obama launched a campaign this month called "Let's Move" to combat childhood obesity; however, the Alliance says play is the missing ingredient.
Play does not include time spent in front of the computer, mastering video games or participating in organized sports, Almon said.
"Video games have a playful element, but most games do not really spark children's creativity, and that's one of the things authentic play does -- their imagination gets stronger, their social capacity gets stronger, their aggression levels go down," she said.
Organized sports can be great, she said, but the kids are being directed by adults.
"The way children used to play sports, they created rules or adapted rules as they needed to. What we have now is children starting at a young age to become competitive, so that in adolescence or even in college, when their bodies are really ready for sports, too many are burned out."
The Alliance advocates that children have at least 60 minutes of unstructured play every day.
Parents can make play a priority by:
•Getting children outside. Take them to the park or the backyard and let them run free while you enjoy a book.
•Cutting back on media (such as TV and video games) and reading fairy tales, myths and legends that get their imagination going.
•Giving them materials with which they can create fun stuff -- hammers, nails and plywood for older children to build a fort or tree house; sheets and clothespins to make a tent; ropes, cardboard boxes, etc.
•Allowing them to fill their own time during play dates with made-up games or activities.
It may take courage on a parent's part to pull back from some structured extracurricular activities to make this happen, but the long-term benefits will be worthwhile, she said.
"Today's children are being asked to behave in very grown-up ways and not being given the chance for the natural experience of childhood. They need time for play and for reflection. You get to know yourself and the world around you in childhood, through the informal lessons in life that sometimes come through play."
Stacy Hawkins Adams
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
VCU researcher says electronic cigarettes don’t deliver the nicotine they promise
One of the hottest new alternatives to smoking -- electronic cigarettes -- may deliver little of the nicotine they promise, a study at Virginia Commonwealth University is finding.
And because they lack the jolt of tobacco cigarettes, users may be modifying the electronic devices to deliver more toxic nicotine, VCU researcher Thomas Eissenberg said yesterday.
The study, to be presented this month at an academic conference, also suggests that e-cigarettes, when used according to directions, don't suppress the craving to smoke very much, Eissenberg said.
"These data scream out for the need for regulation of these devices," said Eissenberg, who is director of VCU's Clinical Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory.
"They say they are giving people nicotine, but based on our study, with the two brands we looked at and tested the way we did, that's not clear."
Nicotine is the addictive compound that hooks tobacco users.
E-cigarettes use small heaters to vaporize a mix of nicotine and alcohol, usually propylene glycol, a common ingredient in antifreeze, for a smoker to inhale. Because e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco leaf, users believe they avoid the toxins and cancer-causing compounds in cigarette smoke.
"There's millions of people who use e-cigarettes, and he's studied 16," said Amy A. Linert, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Cigarette Association.
Eissenberg tested nicotine in the smokers' blood streams
He said the results from the first 16 were so surprising that he fired off a letter to the journal Tobacco Control with his preliminary findings. The letter is being published in this month's edition of the journal. He'll present the full results to the Society for Research in Nicotine and Tobacco this month.
His blood tests found smokers averaged 16.8 nanograms of nicotine per milliliter of blood plasma five minutes after smoking conventional cigarettes, but only 2.5 nanograms or 3.4 nanograms with the e-cigarette devices.
While nicotine affects heartbeat, he noticed an increase only after his subjects smoked tobacco but not after using the e-cigarettes.
The only significant reduction in craving for a cigarette came, briefly, after his subjects tried one variety of e-cigarette within an hour of their first attempt.
"We have hundreds of thousands of customers, and their collective experience and purchasing decisions strongly indicate that our products meet the needs of people interested in an alternative to combustible, smoke-producing cigarettes," said Jack Leadbeater, chief executive officer of NJOY, the company that made one of the two devices Eissenberg tested.
Leadbeater said half his company's sales are to repeat customers, and that 94 percent of customers say they continued using the product after their first trial.
Eissenberg said he's concerned about how people are using the devices.
"If people are reporting what they are reporting about cravings, the data suggest it's not because of the drugs in the device," he said.
But Eissenberg said he's concerned about comments he has seen on blogs that some e-cigarette users are "dripping," or letting liquid from the devices' cartridges fall directly onto the heating element.
That means they may be getting relatively large doses of nicotine, which can be toxic in amounts of about 50 milligrams, Eissenberg said.
While the cartridges contain 16 milligrams, they can be refilled from bottles labeled as containing 500 milligrams, or 10 times the toxic dose, he said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has seized imports of e-cigarettes, saying they are unapproved drug-delivery devices. NJOY and another firm are challenging those seizures in federal court.
And because they lack the jolt of tobacco cigarettes, users may be modifying the electronic devices to deliver more toxic nicotine, VCU researcher Thomas Eissenberg said yesterday.
The study, to be presented this month at an academic conference, also suggests that e-cigarettes, when used according to directions, don't suppress the craving to smoke very much, Eissenberg said.
"These data scream out for the need for regulation of these devices," said Eissenberg, who is director of VCU's Clinical Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory.
"They say they are giving people nicotine, but based on our study, with the two brands we looked at and tested the way we did, that's not clear."
Nicotine is the addictive compound that hooks tobacco users.
E-cigarettes use small heaters to vaporize a mix of nicotine and alcohol, usually propylene glycol, a common ingredient in antifreeze, for a smoker to inhale. Because e-cigarettes do not burn tobacco leaf, users believe they avoid the toxins and cancer-causing compounds in cigarette smoke.
"There's millions of people who use e-cigarettes, and he's studied 16," said Amy A. Linert, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Cigarette Association.
Eissenberg tested nicotine in the smokers' blood streams
He said the results from the first 16 were so surprising that he fired off a letter to the journal Tobacco Control with his preliminary findings. The letter is being published in this month's edition of the journal. He'll present the full results to the Society for Research in Nicotine and Tobacco this month.
His blood tests found smokers averaged 16.8 nanograms of nicotine per milliliter of blood plasma five minutes after smoking conventional cigarettes, but only 2.5 nanograms or 3.4 nanograms with the e-cigarette devices.
While nicotine affects heartbeat, he noticed an increase only after his subjects smoked tobacco but not after using the e-cigarettes.
The only significant reduction in craving for a cigarette came, briefly, after his subjects tried one variety of e-cigarette within an hour of their first attempt.
"We have hundreds of thousands of customers, and their collective experience and purchasing decisions strongly indicate that our products meet the needs of people interested in an alternative to combustible, smoke-producing cigarettes," said Jack Leadbeater, chief executive officer of NJOY, the company that made one of the two devices Eissenberg tested.
Leadbeater said half his company's sales are to repeat customers, and that 94 percent of customers say they continued using the product after their first trial.
Eissenberg said he's concerned about how people are using the devices.
"If people are reporting what they are reporting about cravings, the data suggest it's not because of the drugs in the device," he said.
But Eissenberg said he's concerned about comments he has seen on blogs that some e-cigarette users are "dripping," or letting liquid from the devices' cartridges fall directly onto the heating element.
That means they may be getting relatively large doses of nicotine, which can be toxic in amounts of about 50 milligrams, Eissenberg said.
While the cartridges contain 16 milligrams, they can be refilled from bottles labeled as containing 500 milligrams, or 10 times the toxic dose, he said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has seized imports of e-cigarettes, saying they are unapproved drug-delivery devices. NJOY and another firm are challenging those seizures in federal court.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell Joins First Lady Michelle Obama at “Taking on Childhood Obesity” Event in Alexandria Yesterday
ALEXANDRIA - Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell joined First Lady Michelle Obama to kick-off Mrs. Obama’s “Taking on Childhood Obesity” initiative yesterday. The event was held at the YMCA in Alexandria. Also in attendance were Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Dr. Judith Palfrey, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Both Mrs. McDonnell and Mrs. Obama are advocates for childhood obesity prevention and the importance of teaching children how to live an active lifestyle and eat healthy.
Speaking about Mrs. McDonnell at yesterday’s event, Mrs. Obama remarked, “Let me begin by thanking the new First Lady in the room, Maureen McDonnell. We are going to have a great time working together. She is already very engaged and supportive of these initiatives. And since she's so close I am counting on her to work alongside on some of these issues.”
Mrs. McDonnell has long been an advocate for living a healthy lifestyle. Raising five children, she always stressed the importance of staying active and eating right. Last week, Mrs. McDonnell participated in the First Annual Healthy Youth Day in Richmond, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, where she spoke with children about physical fitness and healthy living habits. As First Lady, Maureen McDonnell will make childhood obesity prevention one of her chief initiatives.
For more information about yesterday’s event, please visit First Lady Michelle Obama’s website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/first-lady-michelle-obama
###
Speaking about Mrs. McDonnell at yesterday’s event, Mrs. Obama remarked, “Let me begin by thanking the new First Lady in the room, Maureen McDonnell. We are going to have a great time working together. She is already very engaged and supportive of these initiatives. And since she's so close I am counting on her to work alongside on some of these issues.”
Mrs. McDonnell has long been an advocate for living a healthy lifestyle. Raising five children, she always stressed the importance of staying active and eating right. Last week, Mrs. McDonnell participated in the First Annual Healthy Youth Day in Richmond, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, where she spoke with children about physical fitness and healthy living habits. As First Lady, Maureen McDonnell will make childhood obesity prevention one of her chief initiatives.
For more information about yesterday’s event, please visit First Lady Michelle Obama’s website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/first-lady-michelle-obama
###
Branding ban on cigarette packs?
LONDON (Reuters) – The UK government launched plans on Monday to halve the number of smokers by the end of the decade and said it would consider removing branding from cigarette packets and banning cigarette vending machines.
At the moment, 21 percent of the population smoke and ministers want to reduce that figure to 10 percent by 2020, with a particular focus on young people.
"We've come so far and now we'll go even further -- to push forward and save even more lives," said Health Secretary Andy Burnham.
"One day, in the not too distant future, we'll look back and find it hard to remember why anyone ever smoked in the first place."
The number of people lighting up in Britain has fallen by a quarter in the past decade as a result of various policies including a ban on advertising, putting grisly pictures on packets and raising the age of sale for tobacco to 18.
In 2007, the government joined several others throughout the world in introducing a ban on smoking in virtually all enclosed public places and workplaces.
But despite falling smoking rates, the number of deaths attributed to smoking is still 80,000 a year.
Now restrictions will be reviewed to see if they should be extended to include entrances to buildings so non-smokers do not have to run a gauntlet of smokers.
The government is looking at protecting children from second-hand smoke by promoting smoke-free homes and cars.
Ministers are also to consider the case for plain packaging, and banning the sale of tobacco from vending machines as part of the moves to deter young people.
"Now that we've banned advertising and will soon see an end to attractive displays in shops, the only remaining method of advertising tobacco is the packaging," Burnham said.
"So we will carefully consider whether there is evidence for making tobacco companies use plain packets."
(Reporting by Avril Ormsby, Michael Holden and Kate Kelland; Editing by Steve Addison)
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