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How We Work
RedBranch raise awareness of important lifestyle issues, and we
promote healthy lifestyle choices in children and young people. We don't just
talk about the problem, we help people to change their world so that healthy
choices are easier to access. For example, we help to organise healthy school
food, involving young people in the solution. We work with food suppliers to
ensure that schools and communities have access to healthier food options. We
also help to find the best ways of getting kids physically active - in the case
of older kids, we find out which activities they actually want, and help the
kids themselves to set up initiatives. For younger children, we help to promote
active play and parental involvement.
We have two main areas of work:
- We change attitudes towards lifestyle choices – we educate and
inspire people to make healthier choices.
- We change the environment so that healthier choices are easier to
access, especially in the school setting.
We provide a range of practical and innovative solutions for schools,
parents, young people and communities. This includes:
 | Facilitating the supply of healthy school food |
| Running an informational website that achieves 130,000 hits per
month |
| Creating student-lead initiatives that promote healthy eating and
physical activity – for example our secondary school fruit
micro-business helps students to market fruit to their peers, with
profits re-invested in alternative physical activities such as hip-hop
dancing |
| Helping schools to carry out surveys of student lifestyle habits |
| Improving awareness of the importance of good diet and regular
physical activity amongst children, parents, teachers and school
management |
| Working to promote active playground initiatives at Primary level
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Our work has helped to increase levels of fruit & vegetable consumption,
reduced junk food intake, and increased participation rates in physical
activity. Approximately two-thirds of schools in Co. Clare have stopped
selling carbonated drinks to students as a direct result of our work.
RedBranch and Parents
RedBranch
aim to support parents in any way that we can. We have very limited
resources, but we would encourage any parents that are interested
lifestyle and health issues to contact us. We don't offer a personalised consultancy service,
but we will do our best to provide general lifestyle information. Please
contact us with your stories, tips and advice, and we will do our best to
include them on our site.
For more
information see our Parents Section.
RedBranch and Schools
RedBranch provide health-related
educational material for schools. This is supported by practical advice, behavioral lifestyle cues and
improved access to healthier choices. The
programme can be integrated with the curriculum at a number of levels.
We help schools to develop specific lifestyle
policies, which address issues like healthy eating and physical
activity. This is coupled with an implementation package which includes the
provision of a range of tailored educational inputs, including parent fact
sheets, parent workshops, student workshops, teacher workshops, lesson plans, classroom activity
sheets and practical school projects. The programme includes improved access to
healthy lifestyle options in the school and wider community, and facilitates
partnership between schools and appropriate suppliers.
For more information see our
Schools Section.
Lifestyle Changes: Our Philosophy
We
aim to empower children and parents so that they can make informed
decisions about their health and quality of life. We aim to challenge the
culture of passivity. We do not
preach, we simply help people to make their own choices from an informed
position.
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Regular physical activity reduces the risk of certain cancers, heart disease and other chronic illnesses - yet physical activity
levels in Irish children are
worryingly low |
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