Salud por Vida

BAWSI, in collaboration with SIREN (Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education Network) and the Mayfair Improvement Initiative, created the Salud por Vida program in the fall of 2006 to combat obesity and diabetes in the Latino communities of East San Jose. The response to the BAWSI Girls program has been so overwhelmingly positive that teachers, principals, and parents encouraged BAWSI to modify the activity program to meet the needs of the parents along with the girls. BAWSI volunteer coaches lead a weekly exercise program for adults at the same sites and times as the after-school BAWSI Girls program at Mildred Goss, San Antonio, Dorsa and Washington Elementary Schools. Thus, girls and parents are both learning about fitness and nutrition at the same time and can reinforce each others' positive behavioral changes. BAWSI strives to increase knowledge across all age groups about fitness and nutrition that will lead to healthier lifestyles for the entire family and greater well-being for the community. Salud por Vida is an adult exercise program utilizing the same foundational elements as the BAWSI Girls' program: pedometers for motivation, t-shirts for team unity, and journals for goal setting. For most of these adults, Salud por Vida provides their first opportunity to exercise in a safe place with a supportive team atmosphere and a coach who cares about them. They learn exercises they can do anywhere, including in their own homes. The participants develop relationships with their coaches and team members that increase their self-confidence and make them want to try harder. At the end of the first eight-week session, all the participants (more than 50), with a background of little to no exercise, developed a deep commitment to their own fitness programs and did not want the program to end. Obesity and diabetes are widely recognized as increasing concerns for the Latino communities of San Jose, and BAWSI's Salud por Vida program is reversing this trend by providing fitness and nutritional guidance in Spanish that is sorely lacking and extremely valuable. One participant put it this way: "BAWSI is an angel that has come to our community."