Funded Projects

Connecting Lil Rhody Roots and Routines

Project Year

2026

City & State

Providence, Rhode Island

Program Name

Resident

Topic

Physical Activity (LHI)

Program Description

Problem: Children with a body mass index (BMI) greater than the 85th percentile or greater than the 95th percentile are classified as overweight or obese, respectively [1]. In the United States, approximately 33% children and adolescents are obese or overweight, placing them at increased risk of several health complications such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease [2,3]. In Rhode Island, an estimated 37% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese [4]. This high prevalence has been attributed to several factors, including food insecurity, limited safe play areas, and elements of a child’s socioeconomic barriers that limit access to healthier lifestyles [4].  

Primary Setting: Over the last two years, 40% of patients seen in Hasbro’s General Pediatrics Department had a BMI classified as overweight or obese [5]. The Healthy Eating Active Living Through Hasbro (HEALTH) clinic is a division within this department that offers counseling on healthy habits for children and adolescents with elevated BMIs. Patients are referred to the HEALTH clinic by pediatric residents and attending physicians; in the HEALTH clinic, patients work on individualized plans to promote healthier lifestyle changes. Recent successful projects at this institution, including last year’s CATCH grant recipient Dr. Emily Davis, addressed childhood nutrition and obesity by improving access to nutrition through screening programs. By creating a project focused on physical activity, I hope to help contribute to this clinic’s multisystem approach to improving our population’s obesity rates.  

Project Goal: The goal of this project is to partner with three community-based organizations (CBOs) to improve access to physical activity in childhood. These organizations, Girls on the Run, Movement Education Outdoors, and SquashBusters, share a mission to increase access to physical activity for children and adolescents. This project aims to establish bi-directional collaboration between the HEALTH clinic and these partnering CBOs to create a health education and physical activity program tailored to children and adolescents with elevated BMIs.  

Proposed Intervention: To promote physical activity, we will create a health education and physical activity program tailored to children and adolescents with elevated BMIs. We will hold a stakeholders meeting between our clinic, Community Health Workers, and our partnering CBOs to understand the barriers limiting physical activity in children with elevated BMIs. We will also complete a needs assessment with families in the HEALTH clinic to further characterize the perceptions our patients have about physical activity. With barriers and perceptions identified, we will create physical activity programming that addresses both facets to connect these patients to places for physical activity through a CBO that aligns with their health goals.  

Anticipated Outcomes: I anticipate the needs assessments will highlight registration costs, transportation, and gaps in knowledge as major barriers to physical activity engagement in our population. Additionally, I anticipate creating and connecting patients to programming that is tailored to their children and adolescents with elevated BMIs will increase their participation in physical activity, deepen their engagement in their communities, and build confidence in patients as they learn to build a healthier lifestyle.

Project Goal

This project aims to improve access to physical activity for children and adolescents with elevated BMIs by creating a collaborative program between the HEALTH Clinic and community-based organizations that has been adapted from existing programming to addresses our target population's participation barriers.

Project Objective 1

 Organize a needs assessment for patients and families of the Healthy Eating Active Living Through Hasbro (HEALTH) to identify barriers to their participation in physical activity and/or in community based programs by August 2026.

Project Objective 2

 Hold stakeholder meetings between representatives of the HEALTH clinic, Hasbro Children’s Primary Care Community Health Workers, and the participating community-based organizations (Girls on the Run, Movement Education Outdoors, and Squash Busters) to plan programming for our target population by December 2026.

Project Objective 3

 Refer 50 patients from the HEALTH clinic to one of our partnered community-based physical activity program(s) adapted to youth with obesity by May 2027.

AAP District

District I

Institutional Name

Hasbro Children's/Alpert Medical School at Brown University

Contact 1

Nicole Asante, MD, MS