PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Native fitness leaders invited to Nike campus to be trained by Nike’s staff of nationally certified instructors. Training will include a variety of fitness clinics, nutritional classes, youth programming workshops, and brainstorming sessions.
What? In November 2003, Nike and the Indian Health Service (IHS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on a promotion of healthy lifestyles and healthy choices for all American Indian and Alaska Natives. The MOU is a voluntary collaboration between business and government that aims to dramatically increase the amount of health information available in American Indian and Alaska Native communities. The goal of the MOU is to help these communities gain a better understanding of the importance of exercise at any age, particularly for those individuals with diabetes. Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions among Native Americans. Prevalence of type-2 diabetes among Native Americans in the U.S. is 12.2 percent for those over 19 years of age, with an 80-percent increase in type-2 diabetes in children and young adults.
This unique “Train the Trainer” program is one of the first implementations of the MOU. Working in conjunction with the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, Nike will host Native community health representatives, health educators and fitness coordinators from 36 reservations for a series of fitness, nutritional and educational workshops. Upon receiving training, these fitness leaders will return to their respective communities with practical knowledge that will help enable them to implement new fitness and nutritional programs for potentially as many as 10,000 community members.
The partnership with IHS was forged through Nike’s Native American Program and is an extension of the company’s commitment to help get Native American communities more physically active and promote healthy lifestyles to help improve their lives.
Who? The following individuals will be in attendance:
When? February 11-12, 2004. The news media is invited to observe the following session:
If you are interested in attending a different session, please contact Jill Zanger (503.704.3821).
Where? Tiger Woods Center, Nike World Campus. One Bowerman Drive, Beaverton, OR 97005
