Our Health & Wellness priorities, or Health Kicks!, provides Lawrence youth with important, year-round access to healthy, active living initiatives that give them the tools and self-confidence to lead healthier, happier, and more productive lives. Through consistent exposure to nutrition education, sport, and health & wellness programming, Health Kicks! is designed to reverse the City’s negative health trends. By directly influencing the behaviors and attitudes of our young participants regarding the importance of physical activity and the foods they eat, we are also indirectly affecting their families and the greater Lawrence community.

• Cooking Courses: We host cooking courses over the summer and winter months that are designed around Boston Children’s Hospital’s FitKit education and programming standards. These resources allow us to keep messaging consistent and track progress related to the healthy eating patterns of our participants. Classes focus on educational topics such as the “health benefits of a low glycemic diet” and “how to build a balanced meal” that tie into the hands-on food preparation and cooking portion.
• Fuel-4-Performance Nutrition Education Classes (#FFP): These nutrition classes, which also utilize FitKit educational resources, are a requirement of all travel soccer players. This course takes it one step farther by focusing more specifically on eating for sport. Some topics include proper pre and post-game nutrition, the timing of meals, and adequate hydration.
• Beyond Fit: This 10 week indoor and 8-week summer-outdoor program helps kids improve cardiovascular endurance while also focusing on sport-specific improvements in footwork, coordination, strength, and speed. Summer Coach-Mentors also take an active role in this program by assisting with program design and implementation. This is an especially popular program among high school students trying to increase their fitness for their respective sports seasons.
• Beyond Fit & Balanced was a new addition to our wellness support programs. #BeyondFAB was designed in response to the pandemic. See flyer below. For eight (8) months it provided critical mentorship to middle and high school females in our program. Most weeks would include female speakers and mentors from various professions like social workers and psychologists.
• Alternative Fitness & Outings: Beyond Soccer always looks for other off the field experiences that reinforce the importance of healthy, active lifestyles. We sponsor hiking and farm trips, participation in local road races and Zumba events.

What’s Happening Now? We’re running weekly BeyondFIT programs in our BeyondFAB turfed room and we look forward to kicking off another round of Fuel-4-Performance programs in spring 2023 to coincide with the start of the Lawrence Youth Soccer Season. That means each travel team will participate in Fuel for Performance classes during the season!