The JumpStart Initiative
"JumpStart Pierre Part" is an ongoing partnership between Tulane University and the community of Pierre Part, Louisiana, which unites the medical community, local, regional, and national government, schools, businesses, and families. The goal of the initiative is to inspire and support a culture of community health and wellness. This will be accomplished by fostering educational, environmental, and policy changes that will ultimately become incorporated into Pierre Part and maintained by Pierre Part community leaders.
The "JumpStart Pierre Part" initiative works through several different outlets to inspire change. First, JumpStart will launch its way into the community by engaging pre-k and kindergarten students in a classroom intervention that involves school teachers, school staff (PE, Art, and Music teachers), the principal, and parents. This classroom intervention involves exposing students to daily education about nutrition and exercise. Healthy snack options will be provided regularly and students will participate in week-long "monthly challenges" (e.g. "Turn off the TV and Move" week or "Eat a Rainbow" week) that encourage them to adopt healthier behaviors. Parents will be asked to assist their children in meeting these challenges, in completing JumpStart-related worksheets, and in providing healthier snacks to the entire class; recipes, health tips, and other wellness information will be sent home with the students with the hopes of creating educational and behavioral changes not only among the students, but also among their family members, as JumpStart provides the tools and the excitement to generate a "conversation of health" within the family.
Second, JumpStart will extend beyond the classroom and the students" families to engage the larger Pierre Part community: A "JumpStart Pierre Part" page will appear in the weekly local paper, The Bayou Journal, highlighting the classroom initiatives and offering healthy recipes. It will also include articles about wellness, questions and answers from a dietician, and ways the community can get involved in JumpStart events, thus creating a forum for community involvement and discussion of health issues. A "JumpStart" website will serve a similar role by creating a space where all community members can learn about and exchange health information, and physicians can even post health tips for patients. Cooking classes will be offered in community centers to teach participants how to prepare healthy, tasty meals that utilize locally available foods. Grocery stores in Assumption Parish will label healthy food options, highlighting healthy classroom snacks and encouraging shoppers to increase their consumption of these foods; these will be the same foods that are incorporated into community cooking classes. JumpStart will also work with community members to set up a walking path within the park, create a vegetable garden that will be maintained by students (who will learn how to grow food and reap the rewards of their efforts), and will join in the annual Pierre Part Health Fair and Food Fest to provide information and food samples that encourage healthy living. While these specific community initiatives have already been planned, JumpStart will continue to work with community members to open up other opportunities that encourage healthy habits.
Third, JumpStart will work at a policy level to improve current nutritional programs both within the school system and the community at-large. Specifically, by partnering with the school dietician, breakfast and lunch menus will be evaluated and modified to create healthier meals within the framework of available options. The Meals on Wheels Program will also be targeted to provide healthier home-delivered meals. Other policy changes will be initiated as the need arises and as members of the JumpStart Team feel inspired to tackle specific policies that will generate healthy changes.
Finally, the "JumpStart Pierre Part" initiative will create an educational environment for Tulane University students. In partnership with medical professionals within the Larrison Family Health Center in Pierre Part and the Teche Action Clinic in Franklin, Louisiana, medical students will have the opportunity to be part of a unique model of health care delivery that integrates both medicine and public health to optimize patient care within a rural community. Medical students will work in Family Medicine and possibly other specialties in nearby facilities. At the same time, they will assist in daily JumpStart initiatives by incorporating their own unique ideas and passions into the community collaboration.
"JumpStart Pierre Part" will continually be molded and tailored to address community needs, and its success thus relies on enthusiastic community feedback and involvement. There are no limitations on what can or will be done when the collective goal is to create a community in which the members take an active role in improving their own health and wellness.