CDC & Radio Unica – Educating Parents & Tweens On Positive Activities.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Radio Unica are teaming up to educate and encourage healthy, positive lifestyles among 9 to 13-year-olds, an age group known in marketing terms as “tweens.” The youth media campaign called “VERB. It’s what you do,” which is branded “VERB. Ponte las Pilas.” (means get moving in Spanish), will use mass media, interactive media, partnerships and community events to help tweens increase their levels of positive activity.

As part of a media partnership between Radio Unica and the CDC, nationally renowned Radio Unica radio personality Dra. Isabel will host a series of live on-air two-hour town hall meetings broadcast from Miami, Houston and Los Angeles. These were especially developed to inform parents, educators, and community leaders about the campaign and what can be done locally to get tweens involved in physical and prosocial (organized group) activity. Community leaders in selected cities will be invited to join Dra. Isabel as guests on the show. They will provide insight and information on the positive effects activity has on physical and mental health, options between physical and nonphysical activity, and the social and emotional benefits of group activities and affiliations.

“Partnerships with community leaders, ethnic organizations, the media and corporations are critical to the campaign’s success,” said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. “The media partnership with Radio Unica serves as a communications bridge with the Hispanic/Latino community to increase awareness, reinforce positive messages and encourage parents and children to take active steps toward healthy lifestyles.”

The integrated, national, multicultural campaign will reach African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic/Latino U.S. populations. VERB was developed to address a number of alarming issues tweens, especially Hispanics/Latinos, are facing such as high overweight rates, Type 2 diabetes, sedentary behaviors (TV, video and computer games) and risky behaviors. Some alarming facts include: 30.4 percent of all Hispanic/Latino children in the U.S. are overweight; the incidence rate of Type 2 diabetes among Hispanic/Latino children is higher than Caucasian children and it’s rising; Hispanic children watch four hours of TV per day, replacing time spent doing positive activities.

“Encouraging youth to be healthy and active are of high, personal importance and is something that parents, family members, and other authority figures across the country can easily encourage our children to do,” said talk show host Dra. Isabel Gomez-Bassols. “Encouraging positive, healthy behavior at an age when youth are very impressionable has proven to help deter youth from engaging in unhealthy, risky behavior.”

In addition to the Dra. Isabel Town Hall Meetings, the CDC is joining the Radio Unica Wal-Mart Health Fair as a sponsor of the outreach program developed in an effort to provide much needed health-care services to underserved Hispanic/Latino communities in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, CA, McAllen, TX, San Antonio, Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Chicago and New York. Of these 10 markets, Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio and Houston feature an interactive activity center called VERB to encourage activity among Hispanic/Latino youth.

For more information at http://www.VERBnow.com

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