Support the Standards
Physical activity is important for academic achievement, good health, and emotional and social development. After-school programs play and important part in helping young people move more, but they cannot do it alone. They need support from parents, community organizations, funding agencies and state and federal organizations.
Read below to see how you can help support the standards in North Carolina. Resources to help you support the standards are also provided.
Families
- Support after-school programs in providing quality physical activity.
- Role-model positive physical activity behaviors for their children.
- Volunteer to help meet the 1:15 staff-to-participant ratio for physical activity time.
- Assist after-school programs with evaluation measures, including surveys and fitness tests.
- Be physically active with children—take family walks, play at the park or go for a hike.
Activity Planner
MyEatSmartMoveMore.com
After-School Program Leaders and Staff
- Provide quality physical activity daily through active play and structured physical activities.
- Provide unstructured free time outdoors, where young people are likely to be more active.
- Model healthy behaviors—be physically active with young people.
- Be creative with use of space and equipment in planning physical activity.
- Provide inclusive physical activities.
- Engage young people, as appropriate, in planning physical activity.
Alliance for a Healthier Generation Resources
Integrating Physical Activity into the Complete School Day
NC Outdoor Learning Environments Alliance
ReCharge! Energizing After-school
The Natural Learning Initiative
Playworks
After-School Program Administrators
- Collaborate with other community-based organizations, such as local colleges and universities, recreation facilities and volunteer agencies, to put the standards into practice.
- Include physical activity training as part of staff meetings, annual meetings and conferences.
- Assist staff with making physical activity a part of lesson objectives.
- Include meeting the standards on staff performance reviews.
- Ensure quality physical activity is a part of the after-school experience through active play or structured physical activities.
Licensure Agencies
- Encourage licensed programs to put the standards into practice.
- Offer training and professional development on physical activity.
State Agencies
- Gather feedback from local after-school sites about successes and challenges with putting the standards into practice.
- Incorporate the standards into existing programs and data collection efforts.
- Offer trainings on physical activity for young people with special needs on-line, at conferences and during annual meetings.
- Develop resources such as brochures, newsletter articles and media campaigns to educate parents and guardians on the importance of physical activity in after-school programs.
- Increase awareness of the standards among after-school programs, parents and guardians, community leaders and after-school advocates.
- Create Web-based physical activity resources for after-school programs.
Community-based Organizations
- Donate equipment that after-school programs can use to provide physical activity.
- Donate facility space that after-school programs can use to provide physical activity.
- Provide volunteers who can train after-school staff to lead physical activity and/or provide volunteers who can lead physical activity.
Funding Agencies
- Make adopting the standards a requirement for funded programs.
- Provide reporting tools, such as surveys or Web-based monitoring forms, to measure the implementation of the standards.
- Gather feedback from after-school providers who have adopted the standards, and use this information to guide the development of trainings and resources.
Colleges and Universities
- Create on-line or distance learning courses to help after-school programs meet the training recommendations in the standards.
- Identify, develop and make available evaluation tools that after-school programs can use to measure the standards.
- Provide technical assistance through student internships and community service to help after-school programs provide enjoyable, safe, age- and developmentally appropriate physical activity.