Like many young women growing up in a society where thin is in, Fawn Saulus struggled with body images.
But an innovative, comprehensive program that focuses on resilience, self-care and wellness has changed the way Saulus thinks about herself. She credits the Covenant BodyMind Initiative with giving her a voice and instilling in her self-assurance.
“The media tells you, as a girl, you have to look a certain way. You have to be a size 0. You have to have long hair,” said Saulus, a student at the Talkington School for Young Women Leaders in Lubbock, Texas. “This program has taught me No, you don't. You don't because the normal woman is not a size 0. Now that I am confident in myself, I can hear this stuff but I don't listen to it. I have that strength. I know who I am. I'm going to be different and it's okay. That’s what it’s taught me and what I try to bring home.”
The Covenant BodyMind Initiative , a partnership between Covenant Health and Texas Tech University, is aimed at reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity from a comprehensive wellness approach.
“We wanted to look at every child and we wanted to look at the whole child,” said Linn Walker, RN, director of Covenant BodyMind Initiative. “We didn’t want to look at just the physical part of the child—the nutrition, the physical activity—we wanted to look at the social, emotional, behavioral and spiritual side of the child.”
What’s different about this program, Walker said, is how deeply it delves.
“We needed to look at the reasons why maybe they were making the unhealthy choices,” she said. “We needed to give them the support that they needed to make the healthier choices when they learn about nutrition and physical activity.”
During the courses, students explore their resilience by focusing on their sense of mission and purpose. They discuss their sense of identity, belonging, feelings of competence, emotional security and physical safety. Then they begin to explore body image, nutrition and physical actively. The underlying message is love of self or self-care.
“We feel like if we can talk about their resiliency skills first, then we talk about nutrition and physical activity. Then, it means something to them,” Walker said. “They have a desire to make the change.”
The program started in 2008 with courses attended by 68 students in two schools in Lubbock. Now, the program is in 53 elementary and high schools in Texas, Virginia, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Georgia, and even Egypt. It reaches more than 3,500 students. The curriculum is offered in middle schools and in high schools. And Texas Tech now offers a course to teach the next generation of wellness practitioners.
“It’s a very broad curriculum that looks at this problem from a little bit different perspective from what we had done at Covenant Health because it’s looking at the deeper issues behind obesity,” said Tavia Hatfield, director of community benefit for Covenant Health. She said Covenant Health provides the funding for the program and Texas Tech provides the resources.
“Tech added components about self-care, self-efficacy, helping these kids to care enough about themselves emotionally and spiritually to care about their physical well-being. That foundational belief in why is it important to be healthy, why is it important to do all of these things: not just eat right but love and care for yourself enough.”
The added component makes the program different from anything else in the state, Hatfield said. The Texas Education Agency has approved the program, meaning that children who are in it can receive school credit for it.
“A big part of our mission is to improve health and well-being in the communities that we serve,” Hatfield said. “When I talk to different groups, I think sometimes people are surprised by that because what we are trying to do is keep people out of hospital, which is the opposite of what you often see with communities and health care. “
About 70 percent of the students who participate in the program are low-income, said Gregory D. Johnston, PhD, assistant director of Covenant BodyMind Initiative.
“In fact, we were charged by Covenant to address underrepresented populations. These are students that have very difficult home lives,” he said. “They may have struggles with their parents; mom and dad are fighting a lot or the neighborhood is unsafe. So they bring those challenges with them to school. We talk about how students bring more with them to school than just a book bag and notebook paper. They bring what’s going on in their community with them and that impacts them during the school day and how successful they can be in the classroom.”
Johnston recalls speaking to one student who said he had to walk through three different gang areas to get to school. “So how can you expect this student to achieve in his academics or his algebra or geometry when he’s worried about how he’s going to be able to get home safely day in and day out?”
Saulus said the course has taught her everything from healthy relationships to leadership to being a strong young woman. She’s also passed along what she’s learned to her family, particularly her younger sister.
“When we wanted to look at that whole child and look at every child, we wanted to reach their families. What we learned is when you teach students, you reach families,” Walker said. “When you reach families, you impact communities. We are trying to impact communities to make healthier communities.”
The class has also helped students with confidence, with trust in one another and with academics, said Shannon McMackin, a teacher at Talkington School for Young Women Leaders.
“This is something that is needed in every school desperately,” she said. “With the bullying epidemic that is rampant, with relationships developing at a young age, beyond the health and nutrition we have to look at the whole person and allow people to look at others as whole people as well. Every school really needs to have a program such as this that goes beyond your basic high school health class.”
Walker compares what Covenant BodyMind Initiative is doing to employers who provide their employees with health and wellness resources. “School districts have programs for their employees but there’s nothing for the students. We recognize that the school is the students’ worksite, and we want them to have as much opportunity for wellness as people who are in their normal worksite.”
For Saulus, the impact of the program on her life can’t be measured.
“There are no words that I can say,” she said, becoming emotional.
“The first thing I’d probably say is ‘thank you.’
Thank you for taking the time out of your lives to even think about us
in that way. This program has changed me. It’s made me into becoming
an amazing woman.”
For more information about Covenant BodyMind Initiative, click here. For more information about Covenant Health, click here.
