The Stafford and Stone School Sport Partnership (SSSSP) are delighted to announce their involvement with the MEND programme. MEND is a community, family-based programme for overweight and obese children aged between 7-13 and their families. The multi disciplinary programme places equal emphasis on (M)ind, (E)xercise and (N)utrition…Do it!.
MEND combines all the elements known to be vital in treating and preventing overweight or obesity in children, including family involvement, practical education in nutrition, increasing physical activity and behavioural change. The programme is designed to deliver sustained improvements in families' diets, fitness levels and overall health.
Pupils and families will be invited to take part in the nine week programme of two-hour sessions. These sessions feature an hour of discussion (alternating between Mind (behaviour change) and Nutrition topics), and an hour of fun land or water-based exercise. All sessions will be FREE to children and families.
Jo Cooper, the Assistant Partnership Development Officer will be working in the role as Programme Manager. She stated, "MEND is NOT a diet, and expressly does not encourage rapid weight loss. Rather, it is about empowerment, putting the child at the centre of a range of ways to make life changes in terms of physical activity, food, self confidence and personal development. By following the MEND principles, participants will lose weight naturally and thereby build a foundation for healthy living - for life."
"In the UK, if current trends continue unabated, at least one third of adults, one fifth of boys and one third of girls will be obese by 2020. UK-based research also shows that between 40-70% of overweight children will become obese adults. I would like to help Stafford and Stone families avoid being one of those statistics."
To register your child, please call Programme Manager, Steve Glover on 01785 259380 or 07825 999 088. The programme is specifically aimed at Obese and Overweight Children aged 7-13 years old.
Following on from the programme at Stafford Sports College the Partnership will run 6 more blocks of sessions at various schools in the Borough. Details of these will be released through local media, schools or on this website.
The MEND Programme has been developed over more than five years by leading UK experts. One of these, Paul Sacher (BSc Med Hons RD) has been a specialist dietitian at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH), a Clinical Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH), the spokesperson for paediatric obesity for the British Dietetic Association, a trustee of the National Obesity Forum and a recognised author on the subject.