Behave Healthy Riviera Beach will focus on teaching school aged children the benefits of healthy eating and making healthy decisions. This program is an community initiative created by Smoothie Me Please, a local smoothie bar in Riviera Beach. Students will be able to virtually attend live workshops and cooking classes. The classes will explore how to wash and prep/cut fruits and vegetables. The students will be empowered to make their own smoothie meal prep kits for themselves and the family.
Mini Grant Dyad Needed: --
Mini Grant SenseMaker Project Story or Micro-Narrative
How This Person Interpreted Their Story or Micro-Narrative
Note: Responses which fell closer to the middle (between two or three options) are shown as two dashes.
As a veteran teacher working with…
As a veteran teacher working with students that have emotional and behavioral challenges, I always wanted to create a program that could impact students by developing healthy habits with skills that can be used throughout their lives to manage stress and maintain healthy bodies. When Covid shut everyone down in the spring, I knew that this needed to happen more than ever – my students were isolated and not engaging as they did in the classroom. I read Activate by Katherine Mills Hernandez this summer and was pleasantly surprised to find that much research has been done showing the positive impact movement has on learning – as a teacher, it’s logical to try something as simple as adding movement to improve student focus and success. Other research shows that exercise is beneficial for mental health as well. There was no way that I wasn’t going to add movement to my lessons and conduct my own “research.” How to convince the students became my challenge.THEN, I stumbled upon an email from Palm Beach Health about the Be Well PBC Mini-Grant! After the Mini-Grant Workshop, I felt confident enough to apply for my first grant, keeping my students in mind. The program idea involves students getting fit, creating obstacle courses at home, designing an obstacle course for school, and finally creating the course on-site so that students can compete for personal goals and bragging rights. At the end of July I was surprised to learn that $3,000 had been awarded for the idea! I was thrilled and wanted to order the fitness equipment for everyone to start getting stronger a.s.a.p., and was disappointed that the process was a little time consuming with the School District, BUT that turned out to be beneficial.Instead of students having the exercise gear for the first day of school, they got to design a logo for the materials and choose the items for purchase after a lesson on budgeting! While we waited for the items to arrive, we worked out for a few minutes every day in class, exploring different websites and videos. Student engagement grew as their skills improved!When the items arrived, they were eager to take them home and start using them. They are required to log 30 minutes of activity every day. I hold a virtual workout session three times per week! Almost every day someone tells me a story about something they are able to do now that they couldn’t a few months ago. Now that most have “bought into” fitness, we are going to start the fun part of designing the obstacle courses at home over the winter break, and then on campus in January and February.The process is taking longer than I envisioned, but the results so far are greater than I dreamed! This would not be possible without the BeWellPBC Mini-Grant!
A Natural Approach to Wellness…One Bath At A Time
Hello, my name is Danielle Morris and I am the founder of Glowrious Bath & Body which is an all natural company specializing in whipped butters, hand-crafted soaps, scrubs, salves and other bath and body essentials. And ultimately, we would love for everyone to have a natural approach to wellness and in our case, one bath at a time. And so my experience with Healthier Neighbors’ mini grant has been phenomenal on a couple of levels. One, I am very grateful for the trainings that were provided, some of the insight, some of the education, because, as a small business owner, that helped me to refine my decision as to how things were going to be allocated. And with that, with my funds through the mini grant, helped me to, again, reallocate my finances, but also to reallocate my focus on how I can better serve my community with the funds that I’ve received. And so, again, this has just been a downright pleasant experience. It has been beneficial for me, again, as a small business owner because sometimes you don’t know what direction to take, so with that, I believe that it’s just been great in a sense of fostering community, providing education, providing insight, and then also giving us the means to do so. So, again, I’m very grateful for the mini grant experience. I think it has been relatively smooth. And with that, thank you, thank you, thank you.
The Journey has begun
Hello, I’d like to update you about the Youth Hydroponic Farming and Mentoring Project 2. On November 10, we kicked off where we held a mentoring session with youth at the Lindsay Davis Center, the youth empowerment program. We spoke about a wide range of topics ranging from healthy eating to food production , and also we went to address some issues going on during the pandemic right now. On November 17, we went outside and then we began to construct the hydroponic tank. It was very windy that day. We did not put any water in that tank and place the seeds in, which we will do next week. However, the youth were able to use some of their construction and engineering skills in building the tank. It was a great success. Next week, when we will add the water and plant the seeds. At that time, we will have the hydroponic tank all the way in motion and also, we will mentor with the youth just a little bit more. It has been a journey. 2020 has been different in the sense of the pandemic, and what we have noticed is it is hard to get youth in one place, maybe because of their own fear or their parents do not want them out at certain places. However, we are having participation, and that’s good, and all is well. I hope to have another update for you soon.
So far the Celebrating Diversity project…
So far the Celebrating Diversity project has been able to conduct the first two workshops of the year long project. As one of the facilitators it has been amazing to see the artwork that that the have created by the youth during the workshops. So far we have been able to discuss topics related to using art to express you inner self and how art can be used as social commentary. During the last project a majority of participants reported that they learned something new about themselves, learned something about expressing themselves through art, and feel that they can express themselves better then they could before the workshop.
While coordinating the Outreach breakfast program,…
While coordinating the Outreach breakfast program, I asked for volunteers to work in our community garden on Saturdays from 7-9am. On the next Saturday 3 people showed up, 2 of whom were homeless. We worked together putting bricks around new garden beds, watering the entre garden, and planting vegetable plants and harvesting produce to be given out on the next day at breakfast. They enjoyed it so much they asked to come back the following Saturday. They continue to come and have spread the word in the community. We are up to 7 volunteers on a regular basis. We give them a $20 stipend donation each Saturday. It’s not much, but they appreciate the money and have told us it gives them a sense of having done something good. As a result of their feedback, we made the commitment to find additional grants in order to bring more homeless volunteers on board. Our volunteers are helping us to grow a garden on Saturdays that feed people on Sundays when they come for breakfast. It’s truly a win win for everyone. God is blessing our ministry and mission to feed our community.
With the grant, I was able…
With the grant, I was able to receive all required licenses with the city and county to operate. I was also able to secure a domain name for my website and have a logo created for my business that is eye catching. I have the required software needed to create Proposals, Presentations and Documents to present my information in a professional matter.
With the assistance f this mini-…
With the assistance f this mini- grant, I am able to purchase marketing and advertising materials for my business to present it to companies. I have a registered logo created, business cards, Flyers and a website create. I am in the talks with a company to create Shirts and Wrap my Work Trailer that carries my materials with the Company name. By the end of the year, I will have professional photos taken with the Crew and Independent Contractors that I will work with. This grant has made it possible for me to put my best foot forward when presenting myself to different companies.
This the assistance of this Mini…
This the assistance of this Mini Grant, I was able to schedule and fund my first Boot Camp. Due the the COvid-19, I am unable to complete a physical face to face camp, so I am hosting my first of many via Zoom Meeting online. The Boot Camp will take place on November 7th at 12 noon. I have about 15 mothers signed up so far from the West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach areas. They all received a limited edition resistance band in the mail (purchase with some of the mini grant funds) to utilize during the Boot Camp. I will continue posting workouts on my Social Media platforms for the Mothers to use at Home.
Thanks to the kind support from…
Thanks to the kind support from Healthier Neighbors tomorrow is launch day for Silver Fox Elite Fitness. We will begin recruiting seniors in the targeted area codes for free personal fitness sessions. In a matter of weeks, this bright idea and compassion for community elders is now a fully registered, certified, and insured mobile fitness busienss. Silver Fox Elite Fitness is preparing to activate beautiful outdoor and indoor vitural studios and is poised to provide virtual fitness sessions. These vital spaces are possible due to the generous help of Community Partners of South Florida which awarded Silver Fox Elite Fitness flash grant award that financed this greatly needed service option need. Prior to COVID-19 all research stated Seniors we unlikely to use virtual options for most services, This perception has quickly begun to change for safety. Success is opportunity meeting preparation. A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. Jackie Robinson