COOKEVILLE - Head Start Body Start National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play has announced the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency as one of 351 recipients of a $5,000 grant to improve the outdoor play area at the Van Buren County Head Start in Spencer, Tennessee.  The National Center was created through a federal grant to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation (AAPAR) from the office of Head Start.

Executive Director of UCHRA, Phyllis Bennett states, "The Van Buren County Head Start provides a positive learning environment and experience to help children develop social skills appropriate to their age, this grant will help them develop physically."

According to Karla Hillis, Head Start Coordinator, "We appreciate Head Start Body Start for helping us evaluate our play spaces and look forward to the opportunity to working with them in training and educating our staff and parents in the value of outdoor play."

"Outdoor play is associated with greater amounts of physical activity in children, and research has shown that opportunities for whole body exercise has a long lasting influence as preschool physical activity tracks throughout childhood," said  National Center Director, Karin H. Spencer, EdD.  "Unfortunately children today spend less time playing outdoors than any previous generation," added Spencer.  "We want to help the Head Start staff discover the benefits of outdoor play across developmental domains and learn about the features of high quality outdoor play spaces that promote movement opportunities for children of all ability levels."

In addition to the play space improvement, each award-winning Head Start will have targeted training, technical assistance and the expertise of a physical activity consultant.  Online courses, webinars, and resource material are also available.  One of the first initiatives will be celebrating the inaugural Take It Outside! Week, October 19-23, 2009, learn more about Take It Outside! Week, by visiting www.headstartbodystart.org.

Submitted by UCHRA