Giving Teachers the Tools to Promote Fitness
Project Fit America (PFA) is a national non-profit organization that creates and administers exemplary fitness in education programming in elementary and middle schools. Under this umbrella we address self-esteem, fitness, and exercise as fun, understanding the body as well as learning leadership, sportsmanship, and character development. The program goal is to reverse the lack of fitness in youth to give teachers the tools they need to help teach children to take responsibility for their health and embrace healthy lifestyle choices with enthusiasm. Our mission is to get kids fit and to create programs that assure every child will find something at which they are very good at and inspire them to participate in more fitness activities. We create the opportunity for all kids, not just the already gifted athletes, to discover, explore, improve, and be recognized for their physical, mental, and fitness efforts and performance.
As of 2014 PFA celebrates our 24th year of working with communities nationwide. We have become unique in that most of our sponsors have been hospitals and healthcare organizations. To date over 900 school systems in 300 cities in 45 states have this program in place. The PFA program is designed to be a permanent program in each school developed; the need to get children fit will never diminish.
We donate outdoor fitness equipment, indoor equipment, core curriculum, all lesson plan support supplies, on-site training at the school with teacher and students, and assign a Mentor Teacher to support the school during the two-year grant program. We fully train the teaching staff and help each school integrate the program into their school plan. At the end of the grant period, PE teachers are able to run the PFA program without any outside intervention. They continue to use this program, in many instances, for the remainder of their teaching careers impacting the health and fitness of thousands of children.
