Voice of the Corps: Superheroes and Superpowers

When members of the North Florida Health Corps were asked what they would do if they could use super powers to promote healthy lifestyles for the children of Jacksonville, their answers revealed the energy, creativity, and passion they bring to service each day.

Many members reported that their greatest concern was the lack of healthy eating habits and physical activity among Jacksonville youth. This term’s NFHC members have been living and serving in Jacksonville for several months now and have had direct experiences with the city’s particular lack of walkability and preponderance of junk-food-filled convenience stores, as well as with its youth.

The health concerns that members intuit from the infrastructure surrounding them and from the children they serve at their host sites are sadly corroborated by recent health studies: over the past 20 years, the number of Duval County youth meeting the minimum standards of basic physical fitness has declined from over 50% to under 30%. (1) Moreover, almost a third of Jacksonville area youth are eating fast food 3 or more times a week, and less than a quarter of Jacksonville area youth are eating the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables. (2) Jacksonville youth are in dire straits when it comes to nutrition and BMI-related health risks, and North Florida Health Corps members long to step in and save the day. With unlimited power and resources, NFHC members would ensure a healthy lifestyle for every child in Northeast Florida.

"I would build a community playground/park in every neighborhood, so that access to a safe and convenient place to exercise is never an issue."- Victoria	"I would establish a drinking age for soda and other sugary drinks, and I would destroy all convenience stores that fall within a 3-mile radius of middle & high schools."- Kylie

"I would want to be super-fast like The Flash! I would start by playing infinite games of chase, tag, kickball, and basketball without getting tired, encouraging youth to join her in running and moving around." -Jordan	"I would use hypothetical laser beam eyes to pave sidewalks and protect them with a force field, allowing every school-aged child to get outside and active, walking to and from school each day." -Carley

"I would use my SUPERvision-supervision- to allow kids to play outside safely anywhere and anytime." - Emily	"My food morphing powers would transform all unhealthy junk foods and fast-food restaurants to healthy, wholesome foods." - Joshua

It’s funny – the members shared a fantastical vision of exactly how they would use superpowers to promote a healthy lifestyle among Jacksonville’s youth and adolescents. But their vision for healthy kids isn’t so far-fetched, and it doesn’t take a superhero to accomplish some of their goals. 

Danny Glen, after creating an elaborate superhuman scheme for cooking his Baker County students healthy meals in the blink of an eye and flying fresh vegetables into food deserts, shared about an ordinary day in his life as a health educator, not a superhero. “One day at the high school where I teach positive youth development, I was hearing a lot of complaints about the lunches being served that week. When I asked the students why they don't bring their own lunch, most answered with ‘Only babies pack a lunch,’ or something to that effect. All it took was showing them the beautiful BLT wrap and pasta salad I had prepared for my own lunch that day to get them thinking about taking control of their eating habits. We launched into a discussion about how fun it is to cook and where to find delicious recipes online. It was just one conversation, but that's what it takes to get teenagers interested in their diet!”

Danny is like every other member of the North Florida Health Corps – we see so many public health needs in this region, and can’t help dreaming of grand, sweeping, instantaneous solutions, and yet, our small, daily efforts are what drive the real solution. While we don’t bring super powers to our host sites, each of us arrive at service each day with vision, passion, and creativity to confront poor health outcomes. Over and over as they shared their superhero goals, I saw that our members, ordinary everyday citizens serving the youth of Jacksonville, were already achieving them.

Caroline Culig is already doing what she says she would do much more quickly, and on a bigger scale, with superpowers: “I would teach them the importance of developing healthy habits for their physical and mental well-being through encouraging habits like teeth brushing, eating nutritious food, exercise, and getting enough sleep!” And every day Janani Sadasivan is already providing the health education that will achieve her hypothetical superhero’s end goal “that kids will have the tools and life skills to prevent poor health, rather than simply react to it.”

North Florida Health Corps members may not be superheroes, but together we are encouraging and enabling Jacksonville’s youth to have healthy lifestyles and positive health outcomes. Our passion for doing so is better than any laser vision, jet pack, or mind-reading powers. The tipping point for public health in Jacksonville won’t come from big, impressive, flashy agendas, and we probably won’t ever be famous, powerful, or super-fast.  Change will come slowly, on the individual level of the clients and students we serve each day, as we continue planting seeds, spreading awareness, and opening eyes.

Sources: 

1. http://hjcopc.org/site-docs/infocenter/mediaroom/publications/2006_DC_EB...

2. http://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-and-data/survey-data/youth-risk-...

This blog post was developed by NFHC member Hillary Tully.

Hillary serves at the FDOH in Nassau County as a Healthy Start Care Coordinator.