More Evidence CATCH Works! 

A recent analysis of PE class time spent in MVPA before and after CATCH training showed an average increase of 44.5%! The analysis included direct observation data collected across 7 school districts, including Ysleta ISD in El Paso, TX who saw an 84% increase in PE class time spent in MVPA!   

Are you interested in increasing daily minutes of student MVPA without disrupting your school schedule? Get more MVPA minutes out of your existing PE class time with a CATCH training! 

New Open Training Opportunities

Districts or organizations scheduling a CATCH training will now receive a $500 or $1,500 discount – for 1-day & 3-day trainings, respectively – when they allow up to 5 external attendees to join. See full information on our new Training Page and Flyer!

Open Trainings will be posted to our Training Calendar and are ideal for individuals or organizations needing to train three or fewer people. Spots are currently available for two April CATCH Kids Club trainings in Indiana, with others to be announced! 

Trainer Certifications and Materials

CATCH Trainer materials have moved to CATCH.org! If you’ve attended a CATCH Training Academy and still meet the certification requirements, please fill out this request form to gain access to the latest training materials.

Observed annually during the last week of April, Every Kid Healthy Week celebrates schools who are joining the fight against childhood obesity, undernourishment, and physical inactivity among our nation’s youth.

We encourage our CATCH schools and champions to consider holding their family fun event and ramping up health-related communications during this week. For planning assistance, check out the Every Kid Healthy Week Toolkit.

CATCH Global Foundation board members Dr. Ernest Hawk and Dr. Steve Kelder testified at the Texas legislature as resource witnesses on legislation that would raise the legal age for the sale of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to 21. Eight states and over 400 cities and counties have passed such "Tobacco 21" measures as part of comprehensive efforts to reduce youth tobacco use and nicotine addiction. You can watch their testimony here.

Also testifying at the hearing was a parent from the advocacy group PAVe (Parents Against Vaping e-Cigarettes), a new partner organization with CATCH My Breath!

If you're interested in getting involved with local advocacy around e-cigarette regulation, or simply wish to stay informed on this constantly evolving topic, join our grassroots movement and "Stand With CATCH My Breath" here.

We’d like to thank Special Olympics International for awarding CATCH Global Foundation an Inclusive Health Innovation Grant in February which will allow us produce videos on inclusive physical education.

Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation has also generously awarded us a 2-year grant which will fund CATCH implementation in all Edinburg CISD schools in the Rio Grande Valley.

Thanks to a $10,000 grant extension from the St. David’s Foundation, we'll be educating even more parents in central Texas about e-cigarette prevention among youth. If you live in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, or Caldwell counties and are interested in a presentation, please contact our team at catchmybreath@catch.org

Organizational funders are vital way we spread child health programming throughout the U.S. and beyond – and for them we are tremendously grateful!

As we approach the time of year when kids start to spend more time outside, one topic you may want to consider is sun safety. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center created and developed Ray and the Sunbeatables®: A Sun Safety Curriculum targeted to preschoolers, kindergarteners and first-grade students.

The program makes sun safety a fun and engaging experience for children by introducing superhero characters that represent the five sun safety behaviors of shade, protective clothing, hats, sunglasses and sunscreen. Activities and lessons can be easily integrated into daily routines and instruction plans across age groups and core subjects. Click here for some tips and recommendations for including Sunbeatables activities in your lessons plans.  

To access sun safety activities for older ages, please visit scholastic.com/sunsafety to learn about Be Sunbeatable™, a sun safety program co-developed by MD Anderson and Scholastic for Grades 2-5.

In case you missed it, CATCH Kids Club sites around the country were awarded prizes for their #CATCHInclusion Video Contest entries this February. The contest was held in celebration of our new CATCH Kids Club Guide for Inclusion of Youth with Disability produced in partnership with Special Olympics, the Lakeshore Foundation, and Flaghouse.