Information for Educators
Programs of interest to educators
Schools play a vital role in the lives of children and adolescents
The Highmark Healthy High 5 children's health promotion thinks of our children as the key to reaching out and promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyles to their friends, families and teachers.
Educators have the opportunity to change the patterns and values of our kids when it comes to their health. Highmark Healthy High 5 provides the resources and tools that will allow you to take the lead in improving the health status of our children.
The Highmark Healthy High 5 focus areas are: nutrition, physical activity, grieving, self-esteem and bullying prevention.
Highmark Healthy High 5 Programs
A vast number of our efforts are being conducted through programs in the schools. Highmark Healthy High 5 encourages educators to take advantage of the myriad of programs that we offer and are available to your school — at no cost.
Highmark Healthy High 5 School Challenge
When the Highmark Foundation launched its five-year Highmark Healthy High 5 initiative in 2006, the School Challenge grant program became an integral part of educating school age children about eating healthy and having an active lifestyle. The goal was to provide funding to schools to enable children to adopt lifelong healthy behaviors.
During the past five years, school buildings in the communities served by the Highmark Foundation have been awarded grants to improve their nutrition education and/or provide opportunities for physical education or lifelong activity. The requests for funding have been very creative — snow shoeing programs in regions with heavy snow; mountain biking; using Wii and Dance Dance Revolution; even personal music selections on iPods to improve workouts. If you would like to learn more about the innovative programs that have been put into practice, see Highmark Healthy High 5 School Challenge: The Best Practices 
for ideas to use in your school.
You can review the list of schools that received Highmark healthy High 5 School Challenge grants and the types of innovative programs that we have funded:
Nutrition and Physical Activity
- Highmark Healthy High 5 Health eTools for Schools — Highmark Healthy High 5 Health eTools for Schools is a Web-based portal developed by InnerLink, Inc. Customized for Pennsylvania schools, it provides a secure method to calculate, track and report student BMI, (Body Mass Index) in a format required by the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Health eTools also provides standards-based, nutrition and physical activities that can be introduced during core academic instructional time, such as Take 10!™. A Wellness Workbook feature facilitates policy change and implementation.
Highmark Healthy High 5 will fund presently approved Health eTools for Schools through August 31, 2013. The actual value of this subsidy is $40,000 for every 5,000 students — and it is free to participating school.To learn more about Health eTools for Schools, call 1-800-988-6983 or visit www.healthetoolsforschools.org.
- LearnToBeHealthy.org — LearntobeHealthy.org is an e-learning initiative created by The Susan P. Byrnes Health Education Center located in York, Pa. Through Highmark Healthy High 5 funding and an expanded partnership with the Center, additional nutrition programming will become available at no cost to schools. Engaging, interactive learning modules, Learn to be Healthy (www.learntobehealthy.org) is designed for students, parents and teachers. The program offers knowledge and skills essential for making proper nutrition choices.
Visit www.LearntobeHealthy.org for more information.
- Highmark Healthy High 5 SPARK Active Recreation — Highmark Healthy High 5 SPARK Active Recreation is a nationally recognized program that affords quality recreational experiences for children in an after-school setting and during in-school recess or recreation periods. SPARK Active Recreation engages all children despite skill level or athletic ability. Through non-competitive, fun games and activities, SPARK Active Recreation engenders lifelong appreciation for and participation in an active lifestyle.
Unfortunately we are not accepting any new organizations since Highmark Healthy High 5’s support for SPARK After-School will conclude September 1, 2011. It would be unfair to bring in a new organization without giving them any type of support. A new organization can, however, contact SPARK in San Diego, California, at www.paspark.org and become a SPARK through their process.
Self-Esteem
- Highmark Healthy High 5 T.R.U.E. Cards … Life Lessons — Character education curriculum by the Heartwood Institute develops children's moral character and self-esteem through understanding and practice of seven core attributes: Courage, Loyalty, Justice, Respect, Hope, Honesty and Love. Heartwood has distilled the essence of their core curriculum into Highmark Healthy High 5 T.R.U.E. Cards…Life Lessons, which introduce the seven core attributes through a guided approach for discussion with children to help build their self-esteem. Forty-nine cards—seven cards for each of the seven attributes — provide a handy resource for teachers, school counselors and parents. To obtain sets of cards at no cost, go to www.hhh5truecards.org.
Bullying Prevention
- Highmark Healthy High 5 HALT!® – A Bullying Prevention Program — Highmark Healthy High 5 HALT! in cooperation with the Windber Research Institute, is designed to build on the nationally-recognized, evidence-based Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. Highmark Healthy High 5 HALT! will improve supervision, implement classroom rules against bullying and host serious talks with bullies and victims. Other components of HALT! include a School Conference Day to discuss bullying, meetings and parents of bullies and victims, and regular classroom meetings. To learn more, visit www.wriwindber.org.
- PA CARES — PA CARES (Creating an Atmosphere of Respect and Environment for Success) is a program of the Center for Safe Schools which is funded by Highmark Healthy High 5. This program will provide support, resources and materials to school districts across the service region. Additonally it will support professional development for existing Olweus trainers and provide for new ones. The application process is now open and a limited number of grants will be awarded on a rolling basis to support implementation during the 2011-12 school year. For details, go to www.safeschools.info/pacares.
- Highmark Healthy High 5 Bullying Prevention Institute — Highmark Healthy High 5 Bullying Prevention Institute offers programs for school personnel. School personnel looking for information about bullying or ways to learn what other schools are doing can now participate in day-long workshops. To learn more and register, please visit the Highmark Healthy High 5 Bullying Prevention Institute, www.bullyingpreventioninstitute.org.
To learn more about programs offered to schools and in the community, visit Highmark Healthy High 5 Signature Programs page.
