Is there anything more satisfying than teaching youth how to use their voice to make a difference in someone’s life and seeing it happen? What about showing community leaders that youth are motivated to make healthy change happen and they can get things done? Honestly, we can’t think of anything more satisfying than giving youth the tools they need to become community leaders.For the past ten years, we’ve been inspiring youth to complete civic action projects that increase access to healthy choices through The Healthy Young People Empowerment (HYPE) Project! We started small by working with three HYPE teams and grew to impact hundreds of teens, multiple communities, and thousands of South Carolinians.
Along the way, we built relationships with non-traditional partners to reach more youth and communities. The HYPE Project moved from one-year initiatives to multi-year endeavors to make a greater impact on the lives of community members. The youth advocacy initiative has even reached youth in multiple states and U.S. territories.
The sustainability of coalitions and community work has always been a key point for us, and we’re proud The HYPE Project has been around for ten years! We made it last by keeping HYPE at the forefront of our work in our strategic plan and through funding opportunities.
The HYPE Project and the Community Transformation Grant
How do you start a youth advocacy strategy without much guidance? You hire a social worker and lean on your partners. In 2012, Wholespire hired a Youth Engagement Manager to create a youth advocacy initiative. (We’ll tell you more about her later on in the year of our celebration.)
Thanks to the CDC’s Community Transformation Grant (CTG) awarded to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) in 2011, The HYPE Project was realized. Youth advocacy was a new healthy eating and physical activity strategy in public health. Communities could use to implement various youth advocacy activities to reach their desired policy, systems, and environmental changes.
Time was spent researching other youth advocacy organizations, missions, and programs to find the right fit for South Carolina. This work was taken seriously. We didn’t want to launch a new initiative that would fail. With the help of experts at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health and SCDHEC, The HYPE Project was born. (You’ll learn more about the experts later on, too.)
That same year, Wholespire chose three communities to pilot HYPE alongside other community projects related to the CTG. Fairfield County, Pickens County, and Richland County youth groups were the lucky ones to use The HYPE Project not only to create healthy change but to also build youth leaders. (Yes, you’ll hear more about the individuals who piloted HYPE and where they are now.)
Addressing Stereotypes and Health Disparities
During one of the first HYPE training sessions, youth learn about stereotypes and health disparities. Youth take part in team-building activities to show how stereotypes force people to place labels on others, even though the labels, or stereotypes, are mostly negative.
More time is spent on discussing health disparities since it’s a more complex topic to grasp and at the core of HYPE civic action projects. Youth learn that health disparities are:
Unfair.
Preventable differences.
Experienced by disadvantaged groups.
Groups can be defined by race or ethnicity, gender, education or income, disability, geographic location, or sexual orientation.
Directly related to historical and current unequal balances of social, political, economic, and environmental resources.
Little did we know that, 10 years later, our staff would be going through similar training about biases, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Changes to the Curriculum
Over the years, the HYPE curriculum has changed. Keeping an educational curriculum current with standards is important to the integrity of the program. So, in 2015, Wholespire contracted with a national expert to align it with the National Health Education Standards.
Evaluating every piece of our work and adjusting plans and content is an understanding at Wholespire, and this applied to The HYPE Project. To give HYPE teams more time to assess components of their chosen civic action project and implement it, Wholespire shortened the curriculum. Staff covered the deleted content during presentations and check-ins.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more changes were made to allow funded HYPE teams to continue their civic action projects while keeping their safety and health in mind. Rather than bringing all funded HYPE teams together for their group training, Wholespire decided to turn the curriculum into a virtual experience. Staff recorded instructional videos from their living rooms, and graphics and energetic music were added to make the virtual experience interesting. And it worked well!
New Things are in Store
In preparation for The HYPE Project’s 10th anniversary, exciting changes will be announced soon. We can’t wait to reveal what’s new!
It’s no secret that we started an evaluation of The HYPE Project to create a more engaging, inclusive experience for youth. Phase 1 was completed in 2021 with the help of the University of South Carolina Youth Empowerment in Schools and Systems Lab. Here’s what they did:
Defined process, intermediate, and long-term outcomes, and
Assessed the curriculum to align with the National Health Education Standards.
More details about the completed evaluation and curriculum updates will be released later in 2022.
We’re proud to celebrate The HYPE Project’s 10th anniversary. It’s been a long road full of discovery and milestones, and we look forward to many more years of youth advocacy and civic action projects not only in South Carolina but also across the country.
Whether you live in a rural community or the middle of a city, healthy foods can be hard to come by. That’s because South Carolina is filled with food deserts. Grocery stores in neighborhoods and towns close all of the time due to their bottom line — sales and money — and some communities may have never even had a grocery store at all. When people can’t rely on grocery stores for easy access to produce, a food desert is born. Fortunately, teens in the 7th District AME Church are changing the landscape of their food supply.
Through a partnership between Wholespire and the 7th District AME Church, youth involved in the Young Peoples Division (YPD) took advantage of opportunities to give their communities access to healthy foods through The HYPE Project®. After learning about policy, systems, and environmental change and how the food choices a person has affect their health, many youth teams began focusing their community-based projects on community gardens.
“Church gardens seemed to be popular projects, not only for the youth but also for the entire congregation,” said Trimease K. Carter, youth engagement manager at Wholespire. “I think they are popular because youth found out that gardens are a fun, learning experience. Plus, the congregations get excited about helping with the gardens, watching the produce grow, and getting to take some home.”
During the final round of funding for YPD programs in the 7th District AME Church, a few youth teams focused on building new church gardens, while other youth teams, who were previously funded, chose to maintain their gardens based on the success of their initial garden project.
According to Pastor Clearance Mitchell from Singleton AME Church in Georgetown, SC, “Our success was in our garden beds. Although this year we endured interesting weather changes that caused some damage to our garden beds, we were still able to reconstruct and be a blessing. Although our giving numbers were lower than last year, we still were able to give fresh produce to a few senior citizens.”
In Turbeville, SC, the youth team at Oak Grove AME Church was funded all three years. Their first project focused on policy changes, like removing salt shakers from church dining tables. Church leaders approved the policy and left the youth wondering what to do next. So, they focused on educating their congregation on alternatives to salt. To do this, they decided to build an herb garden to use in taste tests and church meals as a way to replace or reduce salt. Their efforts have seemed to pay off.
“Our church is located within the stroke belt of South Carolina. Persons tend to eat an abundance of fried and fatty foods,” said Dr. Ila McFadden, YPD director at Oak Grove AME Church. “Through The HYPE Project®, our youth have helped our congregation think differently, and they have given them the desire to improve their overall health through proper diet, nutrition, and the importance of water as a beverage.”
Just like Wholespire’s mini-grant opportunities, funds awarded to the youth teams were used to purchase supplies and support their initiatives. Youth teams worked on multiple projects at the same time and took on active roles with each project. From brainstorming and setting church policies to planning and implementing healthy eating, active living, and safety projects, the youth of the 7th District AME Church YPD program truly stepped up to the plate. They showed their leadership skills and influenced not only their peers but also adults. They demonstrated what youth engagement can be for community coalitions and other youth groups in South Carolina.
For more information about The HYPE Project®, email Youth Engagement Manager Trimease K. Carter at Trimease@wholespire.org.
Setting health-related policies are, perhaps, one of the first steps in creating healthy environments, influencing behavior change, and addressing health equity on a systemic level. When health-related policy is incorporated into churches, the potential to change the health of a community is impactful. And, when teens lead the policy charge, encouraging church leaders to adopt health-related policies can be simple.
That’s what teens found out throughout a three-year partnership between Wholespire and the 7th District AME Church’s Young Peoples Division (YPD). Through The HYPE Project®, youth teams were able to get more than 60 health-related policies passed at their churches. Examples of policy changes made by teens and their church leaders include:
Teens at Pine Grove AME Church in Columbia meet to plan their policy proposals.
Offering water, fruit, and vegetables when meals are served,
Including physical activity breaks during services and meetings, and
Removing saltshakers from tables in church dining halls.
Teens played many important roles in the development and passage of these health-related policies. They helped decide what policies were most appropriate for their churches, wrote the policies, and presented them to church leaders for approval.
Sometimes, policy change requires changing a policy that already exists rather than creating a new one. At Mother Emanual AME Church in Charleston, teens worked with their culinary committee to update their kitchen policy. This updated policy was changed to include healthy food choices on their menu.
The HYPE Project® teaches teens that promoting policies is key to getting everyone in on the healthy eating and active living movement. Teens developed activities to promote health-related policies like creating a walking program, producing physical activity videos, and hosting kick-off events.
At Pine Grove AME Church in Columbia, teens hosted the Reshape your Diet and Witness the Fitness community event at the Pine Grove Community Recreation Center to promote their church policies and to encourage the community to adopt a healthy lifestyle. They offered a healthy snack taste test, games, fruits of the spirit canvas painting, line dancing, healthy recipes, and door prizes.
“The youth participation at this event made me proud. Because of this event, the church is starting a community faith walk beginning the first Saturday in the month at Harbison Park,” said Miranda Blocker, YPD director at Pine Grove AME Church.
Teens led events like church walking groups to promote their policies and to encourage members to become more physically active.
At Bethany AME Church in Union, teens successfully encouraged their church leadership to create health-related policies for their kitchen. In addition to serving fruits and vegetables at church-hosted events and removing the salt shakers from tables, they decided to stop serving fried foods altogether. After promoting the policies, they’ve seen individual behavior change.
“We noticed that a lot of our church members have started to exercise more (such as joining gyms, walking) and eat healthier,” said Rena Goode. “We also noticed that our kitchen committee has increased healthy food choices for meal service.”
Through youth engagement and The HYPE Project®, the 7th District AME Church’s teens are taking on larger leadership roles and becoming community changemakers. Visit The HYPE Project® page to learn how teens can make change happen in your community.
Working with the faith-based community to increase access to healthy choices and opportunities is a strategy that Wholespire staff knows well. Churches and other faith-based settings provide opportunities to implement policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change that can have a positive impact on population health.
Over the past three years, Wholespire partnered with the 7th District African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and its Young People’s Division (YPD) to implement The HYPE Project. Through a competitive application process, all churches in the 7th District with an active YPD were invited to apply for a mini-grant to implement healthy eating and/or active living strategies. Funded by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC), The HYPE YPD Project also required that participating YPDs implement injury prevention strategies.
Over the life of the SC DHEC funding, Wholespire and the 7th District AME Church supported 306 youth contacts from 22 AME churches in 11 counties. Youth in the Young People Division (YPDers) positively impacted the lives of their congregations by completing projects such as:
Community/Church Gardens,
Church Health Bulletins,
Safety Signage,
Handrails,
Community/Church Walking Clubs,
Walking Trails, and
Creating/improving Outdoor Recreation Spaces.
Youth advocates at Bethany AME Church in Jonesville, SC build a garden.
The Bethany AME Church garden looking healthy and full of produce.
The Thomas Chapel AM Church HYPE Team in Union, SC, hosts community walks/runs on Saturdays.
The YPDers also collectively passed over 60 healthy eating and active living policies at their churches. Policies focused on offering water, fruit, and vegetables when meals are served, including physical activity in services and meetings, and removing saltshakers from tables in church dining halls.
“This impressive accomplishment is an indication that church leadership, who must approve policies, are supportive of healthy change and that they are invested in the health of their congregants,” said Trimease K. Carter, manager of youth engagement at Wholespire. “Sixty policies across 11 churches is huge, and it was youth-led.”
Wholespire encourages HYPE teams to connect with local partners for additional resources and assistance that can leverage funding. Many YPD teams partnered with local organizations for technical support. Organizations such as the South Carolina Department of Education’s Farm to Table, SC DHEC, and SNAP-Ed provided helpful advice, tips, printed material, and strategies for implementing projects.
“Oftentimes, we are making decisions that affect our youth. It seems obvious to get youth leaders connected with our partners and let them help lead the direction of community health improvement efforts,” said Carter. “We feel like connecting youth with our chapters and partners is a win-win for everyone.”
YPD teams haven’t been without their challenges. COVID-19 posed great challenges for YPDers because of church closings, canceled group meetings, and other restrictions. They had to identify projects that could be safely implemented. Through their projects, youth were also able to support efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19. Most were able to provide personal protective equipment (e.g., masks, hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray, and wipes) and share prevention tips with their congregations.
The Brown Chapel AME Church HYPE Team in Columbia, SC, revitalized a neighborhood basketball court.
A young man at Brown Chapel AME Church paints the basketball court.
St. Paul AME Church (Shaw) in Sumter, SC, completed a church garden.
The Final Round
The Jeter AME Church HYPE Team in Carlisle, SC, plants a garden.
The final round of funding ended in September 2021 with eight YPD teams being selected. Five of these were returning teams and three were new teams. The returning YPDers focused on expanding, maintaining, and promoting their existing projects. For example, one church hosted a Reshape your Diet and Witness the Fitness event to promote policy, systems, and environmental changes that were established in the previous years of their project.
The newly selected teams were able to identify, plan, and implement projects through this opportunity. According to one HYPE Project Advisor, “The financial support removed a large barrier in making the vision a reality.”
Wholespire was honored to work with historical Mother Emanual AME Church in Charleston, a newly selected team. Mother Emanual AME Church experienced tragedy in 2015 when a self-acclaimed white supremacist took the lives of nine members attending Bible study. The YPDers posted signs about general kitchen safety, passing healthy eating and active living policies, stress management, and body positivity. Their YPDers also hosted monthly group walks near the church.
The safety and injury prevention component during the final round of funding was addressed in many different forms. One team focused on practicing safety before, during, and after physical activity by warming up, cooling down, staying hydrated, and recognizing the signs of heat exhaustion. Other teams promoted safety through the use of safe recreational signage, kitchen safety signage, no firearms guns/weapons signage, and lighting in outdoor recreational spaces. Additionally, one HYPE YPD Team worked on clearing a sidewalk for the community to use. Residents expressed gratitude for clearing the sidewalk, with one stating that she can now “walk without fear of being hit by a car on the road.”
As with other Wholespire mini-grant opportunities, YPDers were encouraged to leverage funds. One church applied for a Healthy Eating, Active Living mini-grant from Wholespire and received $4,900.00 to expand their project. Their initial project included the creation of a walking trail. With these new funds, they will be able to repair and upgrade their basketball and baseball areas and add playground equipment. Wholespire plans on connecting this group to the SC DHEC Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, & Obesity Prevention for consultation on an open community use policy.
Youth Engagement Benefits
When we think of youth engagement, we think of youth engaging in advocacy campaigns or with community coalitions. The HYPE Project teaches youth to engage in healthy eating and active living projects. Church leaders have shared many benefits from participating in the HYPE YPD Project. They report that youth have become more engaged within the church and church activities. An adult advisor said, “Some of our youth were not very active within the church and this gave them the opportunity to step outside of their box.”
YPDers are also engaging with older adults within their congregation by getting them to help with activities like gardening, clearing fields, and packing mulch. One adult advisor said, “We had adults and senior citizens help out and it gave them something to do!”
This opportunity has also helped youth to be more conscious about physical activity and what they are eating and drinking. They are also sharing and stressing the importance of these things with their families, congregations, and communities. YPDers have hosted ribbon-cutting, field day, and kickoff events, as well as health fairs. One team’s project even led to their church starting a community faith walk.
Working with the 7th District AME Church and YPDers to address healthy eating, active living, and safety across communities in South Carolina has been an impactful partnership. Not only have the youth and church leaders learned about PSE change and its effectiveness, but Wholespire staff learned about the structure of the AME church and the appropriate channels to make change happen.
During this time of uncertainty, one Laurens County group has been working hard to become “Champions of Change.”
The Laurens County Bridging the Gap Advocacy HYPE team is composed of students from schools and communities in the Laurens area working as one united team to bring about change in the community.
HYPE stands for Healthy Young People Empowerment. It is a curriculum-based youth engagement program designed by Wholespire (formally Eat Smart, Move More SC) to build the skills of youths to become a greater voice in their communities.
The Laurens County School District Hype team includes middle and high school students from both Laurens and Clinton. They have worked to address the issue of unsafe playgrounds, unsafe passage to schools and parks, and lack of accessibility to fresh vegetables in lower-income communities.
The HYPE team has worked to have pedestrian signs and flashing school lights installed to make the entrance to the school safer. They have worked to restore and update abandoned parks in the area. They have also implemented a fresh vegetable garden to help provide fresh vegetables in lower-income neighborhoods.
People who the group met and worked with include Laurens Mayor Nathan Senn, Waterloo Mayor Barbara A. Smith, Gray Court Mayor Stellartean Jones, Laurens City Council, Laurens County Council, DOT, Laurens Park and Recreation, Churches, Laurens Rotary Clubs, Laurens Exchange Club, and Laurens District 55 School.
Even in times of COVID-19, the team has been able to make change in the community. Though its plans for a countywide Kids Kickball Festival in June 2020 had to be postponed because of CDC guidelines, the group still had a productive year. Members helped improve the community through the renovation of Hickory Tavern Park and by helping restore and repaint the railings and awnings of an older member of the community. They also worked to maintain the garden to provide fresh vegetables for the community. All of this was accomplished while adhering to CDC regulations.
The HYPE team looks forward to making Laurens County a safer and more enjoyable place to live by putting their skills to use and being a greater voice in the community. It hopes to be able to set the plan in motion for the Kickball Festival at the abandoned football field it helped restore. The HYPE team’s next goal is to build a greenhouse to improve the garden’s productivity.
Is there anything more satisfying than teaching youth how to use their voice to make a difference in someone’s life and seeing it happen? What about showing community leaders that youth are motivated to make healthy change happen and they can get things done? Honestly, we can’t think of anything more satisfying than giving youth the tools they need to become community leaders.
According to Pastor Clearance Mitchell from Singleton AME Church in Georgetown, SC, “Our success was in our garden beds. Although this year we endured interesting weather changes that caused some damage to our garden beds, we were still able to reconstruct and be a blessing. Although our giving numbers were lower than last year, we still were able to give fresh produce to a few senior citizens.”
