Vida Activa Project

Welcome to Vida Activa Project

Vida Activa is a project that will work with youth leaders in the South Omaha Latino Community to improve healthy and active living.  The 20 youth selected (ages 14-19) will participate in many exciting activities to build their leadership skills and create a film and other materials to promote active living in the community. 

Workshops
In the Summer of 2011, youth will participate in workshops such as:

• Youth Advocacy and community readiness
• Social justice, leadership and active citizenship
• Finding one’s voice and understanding the audience
• Story structure and story boarding
• Social networking and social messaging

Youth Strategy Development
Youth participants will get to work on creating a variety of materials to advocate for active living in the community such as:

• Scripts and story boards for a film
• A youth advocacy brand, logo, website, and online social networking site (e.g., Facebook)

Documentary and Film Clips
Professional film directors will work with the youth to create a 30 minute documentary and short commercial type clips that will highlight healthy and active living in the community.  The film will document the youth advocacy intervention process and also highlight youth’s perspectives and include dramatic subplots of youth and their families related to healthy living.  The documentary and film clips will be premiered in Omaha and subsequently promoted and disseminated through the team’s networks in various industries.

Surveys and Interviews
Surveys and interviews with many community members will help determine how well the project works.
 
The interviews will follow the Community Readiness Model (CRM).  The CRM provides a framework and well-validated tool for measuring community readiness using interview methods.  Community Leaders, parents, and youth will be interviewed pre and post intervention using the CRM. 

An additional survey will help determine the extent to which increases in community readiness in the Latino community can be attributed to the youth advocacy intervention.

• The survey will be administered to a random sample of 250 adults in the  South Omaha Latino community, larger Omaha area, and Lincoln, NE pre- and post-intervention
• The survey will assess items such as perceptions and attitudes about childhood obesity, support for environmental and policy changes, and community commitment