March is National Nutrition Month!

Ray and the Sunbeatables™: A Sun Safety Curriculum for Preschoolers, Kindergarteners and First-Grade Students, Launches in Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Miami-Dade County Public Schools – the fourth largest school district in the country – is now starting to implement Ray and the Sunbeatables™: A Sun Safety Curriculum for Preschoolers and K-1! The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has developed the Sunbeatables™ Program to educate teachers, parents and children about sun protection and promote sun safety behaviors in an effort to reduce children’s lifetime risk of developing skin cancer.

CATCH facilitated six Sunbeatables™ training sessions on January 23, 2017 at three sites around the city for staff representing over 200 Miami-Dade elementary schools and preschools with the goal of reaching approximately 60,000 children!

As part of our mission, CATCH works to ensure that cost and accessibility is not a barrier for any eligible school or school district that wishes to obtain the CATCH program and implement it in their school. This is the CATCH Promise. The CATCH Global Foundation will keep working to assist qualifying schools with the curriculum, materials, training, evaluation, and to deliver ongoing technical assistance and support to promote long-term sustainability. To learn more, visit our new CATCH Promise webpage here. 

CATCH Launches in Oklahoma City Public Schools

Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) is the newest district to adopt CATCH thanks to a grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma. Oklahoma has the 14th highest childhood obesity rate in the nation at more than 17 percent among children ages 10-17, according to Trust for America’s Health. Teachers from nine OKCPS campuses received training February 20th-21st and are beginning to implement the program for approximately 4,000 kids. OKCPS is the 14th school district now supported by the CATCH Promise. See the results of two other Oklahoma CATCH sites, Carnegie and Guymon, here, and a press release for the OKCPS launch here. 

Did you *CATCH* our SNAP-Ed Webinar?

As an approved SNAP-Ed evidence-based curriculum, CATCH can help set your school or organization up for success! During our March 1st webinar, panelists discussed their experiences initiating, implementing, and evaluating CATCH as part of their SNAP-Ed programming within their communities. You can view the entire webinar recording here. 

Social Media Shout-out!

We want to give a special thanks to all the communities who share their CATCH experiences with us via social media! Here are some recent shares: 

• Brighter Bites’ CATCH Corner
• Seguin ISD / Briesemeister Middle School’s 
  “AJB Family Health Fitness Night”
• Southern Hills Elementary (Training, Post-Training)
• Katy ISD P.E. Class
• Camacho Elementary’s Garden
• Belmont Elementary’s CATCH Poster Contest
• Chalona Middle School’s CATCH Food Tasting

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