Hope Heart Institute Programs
Kids Take Heart (KTH) is a health and fitness curriculum targeting anatomy, fitness, nutrition, stress and goal-setting designed as a tool to equip children in third, fourth and fifth grades to make lifestyle choices that promote fitness, health and wellness and lessen the likelihood of chronic disease (i.e. cardiovascular). KTH aligns with national and state standards for health and fitness and is one model teachers could use to ensure developmentally appropriate, standards-based instruction is provided to students. Kids Take Heart also involves student health ambassadors in outreach to promote heart health information among families and the greater community.
Youth Take Heart™ is a four-week comprehensive Middle School Science curriculum focusing on heart anatomy, the causes of cardiovascular disease, prevention of cardiovascular disease through heart-healthy nutrition and physical activity, and biotechnological solutions for repairing damaged heart and vascular tissue. It is a cutting edge science education program for 21st century classrooms, created by The Hope Heart Institute through a collaborative effort with The University of Washington Engineered Biomaterials, and MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement). Youth Take Heart™ also engages in community education and outreach, promoting heart health to youth and their families in local underserved communities.
Women Take Heart™ is a community education series targeting underserved populations, equipping women and their families with key prevention tools. The series blends hands-on instruction with expert speakers to send home the critical message: basic changes in diet and exercise can make the difference between life and death.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
We are working hard to expand the reach of The Hope’s programs; bringing them to more communities in need. Last year we focused on increasing our capacity for expansion by adding two additional staff members, 100 new volunteers and 40 new community partners.
As a result, The Hope was able to double our reach from 2010 and serve more than 70,000 people with heart health education in 2012. Additionally, we provided 105,000 instructional hours to students through our in-school Take Heart™ curriculum.
We are dedicated to taking our in-school Take Heart™ programs to scale and forging new relationships with schools and communities in underserved areas of King county. Our priority is to reach schools with 50% or greater free or reduced lunch participation. Currently all of our curriculum kits are being utilized by schools and we need to build additional kits to serve a rapidly growing need. Each of our curriculum kits costs $5,000 to build and will allow The Hope to serve three new schools and up to 1,000 new students per year, providing an estimated 16,000 health education instructional hours.