The Louisville Urban League announces Get Fit Louisville a new health and wellness collaborative aimed at reducing health disparities. Get Fit Louisville uses the production of a Reality Show as an innovative approach to engaging people to participate in health education and wellness, access healthcare professionals, and to increase their physical activity and overall fitness. To produce the Reality Show and to raise awareness, Get Fit Louisville is recruiting 25 teens along with their parent to participate. Participating Teens and Parents must commit to 10 sessions over five months. Organizations collaborating with the League on the initiative include: Norton Healthcare Centers for Prevention and Wellness, The Heuser Clinic, Walmart, Papailler Creative, and many others are being added.
Teens (13-18) and their parent or legal guardian can apply to participate in Get Fit Louisville and the creation of the reality show about getting healthy.
Sessions includes health education as well as physical activities in the form of games where 5 teams of 10 participants (50) each will compete for prizes and incentives.
The goal is for participants to lose weight, participate in health screenings, and improve their overall health. Get Fit Louisville will work to connect participants to healthcare where they have annual visits with their doctor and dentist. For those that have not seen a doctor or dentist in the past year or those that don’t have a primary healthcare provider, Get Fit Louisville will work to connect them to healthcare.
“According to recent studies Kentucky is ranks as one of the highest states nationally for obesity and even higher for childhood obesity and to make a change we need to affect both adults and youth” said Ben Richmond, Louisville Urban League President. “This is why we want to have a teen and their parent together in the program to hopefully effect a change in the entire household. The concept of creating a reality show from the experience is a big attractor and incentive to stay engaged throughout the program” Richmond added.
Funding for Get Fit Louisville is provided by a Project Wellness grant from the National Urban League and the Hearst Foundation.
