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Health for Children & Young People

RedBranch is a registered charity that promotes healthy lifestyle choices in Irish children and young people.

 

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How We Work

We have two main areas of work:

  1. We change attitudes towards lifestyle choices – we educate and inspire people to make healthier choices.
  2. We change the environment so that healthier choices are easier to access, especially in the school setting.

We provide a range of practical and innovative solutions for schools, parents, young people and communities. This includes:

bulletFacilitating the supply of healthy school food
bulletRunning an informational website that achieves 130,000 hits per month
bulletCreating student-lead initiatives that promote healthy eating and physical activity – for example our secondary school fruit micro-business helps students to market fruit to their peers, with profits re-invested in alternative physical activities such as hip-hop dancing
bulletHelping schools to carry out surveys of student lifestyle habits
bulletImproving awareness of the importance of good diet and regular physical activity amongst children, parents, teachers and school management
bulletWorking to promote active playground initiatives at Primary level

Our work has helped to increase levels of fruit & vegetable consumption, reduced junk food intake, and increased participation rates in physical activity. Approximately two-thirds of schools in Co. Clare have stopped selling carbonated drinks to students as a direct result of our work.

RedBranch and Parents

RedBranch aim to support parents in any way that we can. We have very limited resources, but we would encourage any parents that are interested lifestyle and health issues to contact us. We don't offer a personalised consultancy service, but we will do our best to provide general lifestyle information. Please contact us with your stories, tips and advice, and we will do our best to include them on our site. 

For more information see our Parents Section.

RedBranch and Schools

RedBranch provide health-related educational material for schools. This is supported by practical advice, behavioral lifestyle cues and improved access to healthier choices. The programme can be integrated with the curriculum at a number of levels.  We help schools to develop specific lifestyle policies, which address issues like healthy eating and physical activity. This is coupled with an implementation package which includes the provision of a range of tailored educational inputs, including parent fact sheets, parent workshops, student workshops, teacher workshops, lesson plans, classroom activity sheets and practical school projects. The programme includes improved access to healthy lifestyle options in the school and wider community, and facilitates partnership between schools and appropriate suppliers. For more information see our Schools Section.

Lifestyle Changes: Our Philosophy

We aim to empower children and parents so that they can make informed decisions about their health and quality of life. We aim to challenge the culture of passivity. We do not preach, we simply help people to make their own choices from an informed position.

 

Regular physical activity reduces the risk of certain cancers, heart disease and other chronic illnesses - yet physical activity levels in Irish children are worryingly low

 

Tel: +353 (0)61 713 750

RedBranch School Health, Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare, Ireland

Send an email with your questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: December 02, 2009

This site is for educational purposes only. You should consult a healthcare practitioner for any health problems you may have.

Copyright © 2006-2009 RedBranch School Health

Registered Charity. CHY 17694

You may freely copy and distribute our materials provided that you retain our logo and contact details.

 

 

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