Project Title:   Fueling Fitness: A Focus on Food, Knowledge, Exercise and Fun Across Cultures and Generations

Amount Funded:   $24,930

About the Organization/Coalition:
A coalition of 25 agencies and practitioners in the field of aging have been working for the past two years under the umbrella of a successful grant project called Daly City ACCESS, to focus on the needs of monolingual, low-income elders while building a comprehensive service system for all older adults. A few of the partners include Doelger Senior Center, Self Help for the Elderly, Jefferson Adult School, Pilipino Bayanihan Resource Center, and San Mateo County Public Health Dept.

Project Objectives:
The goal of the project is to connect three generations in a training program designed to improve fitness in adults age 50+. The objective include:

1. Create a fitness-focused training program that offers grandparents the opportunity to better serve their grandchildren and others by completing a regimen of physical, educational, nutritional, and social activities in a 12-week course taken with their grandchildren. At the end of the 12 weeks, the older adults will be offered a stipend to volunteer in one of several sites in Daly City serving youth under age five for 10 hours per week.
2. Utilize adult parents to build trust, assist in recruitment, and define motivations such as job skill improvement and caring for others.
3. Work as a community partner with the County of San Mateo Public Health Dept. in the funded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Active for Life Initiative to identify sedentary adults age 50+ in Daly City and motivate them to action by participating in this project.
4. Identify and reach out to communities of color, relying upon collaborating agencies that focus on the Filipino, Hispanic, African American, and Chinese communities.
5. Create a measurable database for evaluation.

Progress Report:  
The project Fueling Fitness, a collaborative effort to evaluate motivations for multicultural and intergenerational fitness, has proven to be a successful model. A marketing plan was developed to create citywide coverage of the program. Project managers developed a video with grandparents and their grandchildren to help potential participants better understand the program.

Two classes are located in a local preschool during school hours, and the third is in a community center Saturdays to attract working adults. The collaborative attended the school parent night and presented the video and a project summary to encourage participation. All materials were produced in four languages; English, Spanish, Tagalog, and Mandarin. Participation in the school program has been weak. Project staff chose a time when grandparents should be picking up their children and could easily participate. Only eight or nine participants attend each week. This program continued beyond the initial twelve weeks, sponsored by adult education.

The Saturday community center class is more successful, since it meets the needs of working adults. The Saturday program has illustrated a phenomenon in this multicultural community. The families have chosen to all exercise together, from preschoolers to teens, to young adults, parents, and grandparents. More than 25 participants regularly attend this class. Each week a nutritionist spends one half- hour with the families creating healthy foods with recipes that are shared and discussed. This seems to be the highlight for the children.

Staff members have developed a culturally sensitive approach to recruitment and curriculum design for fitness and nutrition. Translations are always available for class time and for the weekly recipes. Participants are solicited through trust building with community partners. The local team of Active for Life has been instrumental in sharing the goals of recruitment. By sharing their resources they have been able to reach many more adults.

Contact Information:
Sue Horst
Supporters of Doelger Senior Center
Westlake Park 101 Lake Merced Blvd.
Daly City, CA 94015-1048
(650) 991-8014