The New York Times ran a fascinating article about Wings of America, a youth development program for American Indians that uses running as its core activity.The power of running continues to amaze me every day.
Read the article here.
P.s. Here is Wings of America's mission statement as well as some of the successes they have had directly from their website. Great stuff!
Mission Statement
The mission of Wings is to enhance the quality of life for American Indian youth. In partnership with Native communities, Wings uses running as a catalyst to empower American Indian and Alaskan Native youth to take pride in themselves and their cultural identity, leading to increased self esteem, health and wellness, leadership and hope, balance and harmony.
Programs Measurement
A Wings survey conducted in 2000, showed a 99% high school graduation rate, with 94% of our participants going on to college. Results of the survey indicated that overall, WOA participants are attaining a higher level of education, have lower incidences of arrests, less use of alcohol and illegal drugs, are having their first child a year or two later than average, and they are more physically active and maintaining healthier lives than their same-age peers in the larger American Indian and general populations.
3 comments:
Good program and article. I've always thought it is great for kids involved in some kind of athletic activity. Thanks for sharing!
Great find Dave. I am going to Copper Canyon later this week to run with the Raramuri (Tarahumara runners), so I found this article very interesting.
BTW, I scored 20 out of 20 on your "Are you a Trail runner?" questionnaire.
Cheers, Paul
Cool, I hope the program continues (the other statistics about the problems in the community were so depressing).
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