265 R. Tait McKenzie Memorial Lecture: Key Strategies for Promoting Physical Activity in Underserved Communities

If achieving recommended physical activity levels were a class in school, American youth would be failing miserably. Only half of all youth meet current physical activity guidelines, and it is worse for some groups than others. For a variety of reasons, youth of low socio-economic status and racial/ethnic minorities are the least likely to meet physical activity recommendations, and the problem is even worse for girls and women than it is for boys and men. There is a great need for programs that promote physical activity among such underserved communities and bring together all stakeholders—community leaders, researchers, advocates, policymakers and members of the underserved communities themselves—to help individuals and their families overcome healthy lifestyle barriers rooted in culture, language, economic disparities and life experience. Several programs have emerged to promote culturally relevant healthy lifestyles for families in low-income Latino communities. In her lecture, Parra-Medina describes examples of such programs and offers key strategies that account for culture and gain community-wide buy-in for effective and sustainable physical activity intervention programs. This session also includes the induction of new Fellows of the North American Society for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport and Dance Professionals.