Steps towards health
To Movere Institute the keyword in tackling obesity is prevention. The Steps towards Health project has been contributing to the prevention of this disease with an innovative methodology offering to their beneficiaries an interdisciplinary model, which enables the integration of various areas of Health Science, ensuring synergy among professionals. This model promotes improved physical fitness, weight control, prevents the development of non-transmitted chronic diseases, while minimizing the feelings of depression and anxiety related to the illness. To succeed and achieve organizational goals a plan is developed for fundraising activities, new partnerships, as well as function as a social business serving the base of the pyramid.
About You
About You
First Name
Vera Lúcia Perino
Last Name
Barbosa
Facebook Profile
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Instituto Movere
Organization Website
Organization Phone
5511-27412374
Organization Address
rua afonso porto, 326
Organization Country
Brazil, SP
Country where this project is creating social impact
Brazil, SP
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
Steps towards health
What change do you want to bring to the world?
To Movere Institute the keyword in tackling obesity is prevention. The Steps towards Health project has been contributing to the prevention of this disease with an innovative methodology offering to their beneficiaries an interdisciplinary model, which enables the integration of various areas of Health Science, ensuring synergy among professionals. This model promotes improved physical fitness, weight control, prevents the development of non-transmitted chronic diseases, while minimizing the feelings of depression and anxiety related to the illness. To succeed and achieve organizational goals a plan is developed for fundraising activities, new partnerships, as well as function as a social business serving the base of the pyramid.
What are the primary activities of your project?
Using the methodology of the interdisciplinary project, children, adolescents and families make use of what we call best practices for a healthier lifestyle.
They learn through nutrition education that to eat healthy it is necessary to learn how to plan food shopping, to buy consciously and moderate and to use all food without waste.
In physical education, games enable the construction of knowledge, provides the development and exploration of issues related to sociability (that happens through rules) and the development of strategies. What's more, with games, children learn that winning and losing is part of life and develop strategies to deal with various situations in your life.
In psychology children and adolescents have the opportunity to present various topics to be discussed and worked without group dynamics. With this approach we observed in all children and adolescents a significant improvement in self-esteem. They start to overcome limitations and to gain control over the live from appropriate choices: deciding what to eat, how much TV to watch or performing a physical activity. We do not believe in restrictions, but in consciousness and action. The core of our program consists of, through the educational process, uncovering opportunities that will generate individual and conscious choice, because we believe that is the only way the child or adolescent will be aware others and the environment where she/he lives in.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
Around the world Obesity reaches impressive numbers. Approximately 1.5 billion adults are overweight and 500 thousand are obese. 170 million children are classified as obese or overweight. In Brazil, statistics point out that child obesity is the fastest growing in 20 years, cases of obesity more than quadrupled among children 5 to 9 years.
The Steps towards Health project is innovative in treating low-income overweight and obese children and adolescents in Brazil, for its interdisciplinary character with a model of 12 monthly visits to the entire family that consists of: nutrition education classes and workshops in the experimental kitchen every week, physical activity three times a week, group dynamics with a psychologist once a week for children and families, and individual sessions, physical assessment of body composition and delivery of results. This model enables participants to be change agents not only at home but also in the community, sharing information and know-how, that is empowerment.
The school-hospitals have a similar goal to the Movere but children and teenagers are entitled to only one monthly appointment when they receive advices on food management and increase of physical activity. The whole clinical process becomes extremely impersonal curbing the necessary bond to guarantee results in the treatment of disease.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
Community that we engage: East São Paulo (Zona Leste) where near one third of São Paulo population lives. Near 4 million inhabitants of whom approximately 1.7 million are young people distributed over an area equivalent to 22% of the city territory. Despite representing a significant portion of São Paulo working force, most of the region's population suffers from unemployment and their families live in poverty. In this universe of nearly 4 million inhabitants is concentrated 34.67% of the electorate of the City of São Paulo, 2.6 million voters.
About Contrasts: Just to better portrait the contrast, only 5% of the residents of the region belong to the class "A". According to pollsters, the remaining 95% are class "B" to "E", based on habits of consumption and income levels. There are also many untapped resources in the community such as social networks, trust, solidarity, mutual support, cultural life, sports and more.
The understanding of these functioning mechanisms in the community where the project is has contributed to its success. We talk with families and children in the region, record their knowledge and their cultures, listen to their voices and understand them, have an open posture to others as a being, hear and understand the speech of fathers, mothers and their children is the first step to trigger a movement of popular participation in the project.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
Vera Lúcia Barbosa Perino graduated in Physical Education and had her first inspiration when she started her studies in childhood obesity at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) from which she held her first diploma in the area, then her completed master and doctorate from the Faculty of Medical Sciences the Santa Casa São Paulo (FCMSCSP).
In the obesity clinic – where she had the privilege of getting in contact with the interdisciplinary team – she was as a catalyzing agent aiming, from a motor point of view, to adapt the needs of obese patients to their reality of life so far ignored, showing that an old way of life can turn into another different one and new experiences are possible.
It was through this maturing process and fourteen years of field work and studies on childhood obesity that she then made her biggest dream to come true when founding the Movere Institute, pioneer in serving low-income population.
What at first was just a wish became reality thanks to her effort, competence and resignation in the face of problems, because we always believed in the power to change people's lives, planting the feeling the appreciation and respect for others.
Her willingness to study and teach, inspired by the wonderful teachers with whom she had the good fortune to work and learn from transformed her willingness into a life project. She also works as a consultant and speaker. She is a reference for the media, published articles and is author of "Prevention of Obesity Children and Youth" - II ed. Editora Manole.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
In almost six years we served over 1500 children and adolescents directly and 4500 people indirectly. As all appointments are individualized, there were 31 thousand cases. We trained 450 health professionals and the like that now serves the demand in their community, impacting a significant number of children and adolescents. Due to our high visibility in the media, our methodology has generated great interest from companies and health services.
The project directly impacts the health of these families, achieving in a short-term significant improvements in self-esteem, body composition, weight and waist circumference loss, percentage of fat decrease and increase on muscle mass. Reducing fat in the liver, decreased subcutaneous fat in the abdominal region as well as reducing cholesterol and triglycerides. Significant changes in physical capabilities focused on health, with an increase of 32.3% in abdominal strength, 14.6% in flexibility and 9.2% in agility. The improvement in all these parameters reflects in important outcomes for the prevention of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular problems, certain types of cancer among others. It cuts spending on public health which nowadays has reached the mark of R$ 1.5 billion disbursed by the Unified Health System (SUS), causing injury to the individual, imbalance to society and loss for the government.
To measure the success of the project, all measurements, evaluations and tests carried on by the project are systematized, which includes a digital database where it is possible to obtain statistics to assess the project's impact on children's health.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
1,001- 10,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Instituto Movere plans to train health and education professionals which will enable the scalability of the social innovation at the regional level initially.
Task 1
To visit leaders of local institutions (NGOs, schools, businesses, health clinics and hospitals) located in the East São Paulo, registering those interested in training their professionals.
Task 2
To deliver training for 500 professionals within 12 months to disseminate knowledge and use during the development of their work.
Task 3
To create a tool (database) to contribute to health indicators for this age group and enable monitoring of the project in the communities.
Identify your 12-month impact milestone
The Instituto Movere will give continuity to the training professionals’ project, reaching 10 cities in the State of São Paulo, increasing the innovation’s scale and impact.
Task 1
To select the cities that have the highest rate of obesity according to IBGE and contact the leaders of institutions interested in registering their professionals for training.
Task 2
To conduct trainings for 1200 professionals within 12 months to disseminate knowledge and use in the development of their work.
Task 3
To enrich the database with health indicators for this age group and enable monitoring of the project in the communities.
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
To expand the model of social innovation we will invest in creating a social franchise that will enable the spread of a successful experience, and the expansion of social impact and scalability.
The importance of transforming the social technology into a franchise is essential facing the large social demand, coupled with the fact of the State inability to solve this problem alone.
The proper packaging of the social innovation results in a social franchise model with all necessary elements for success such as: technical manuals, videos, scripts, training, among other forms of systematized methodology. And most importantly, the served populations will be privileged to receive consistent social projects, tested and approved.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
The main barrier to the success of the project is the obesogenic environment in which children and their families find themselves. Prevalent in all Western countries with Westernized lifestyle, this environment is characterized by unlimited supply of cheap food, practical and with high energy concentrates. Together with an increasing sedentary lifestyle and physical activity practices increasingly made more difficult.
To overcome this barrier the Institute Movere works with nutrition education, counseling and physical activity that unleashes in adolescents the ability to understand practices and behaviors and conditions that allow the youth to make decisions to solve perceived problems. It is an educational intervention focused on values formation, responsibility, pleasure, criticism, playfulness and freedom. Changes in behavior occur when teenagers realize the meaning of these changes in their life stories, which covers individual and social aspects, and the emotional and behavioral ones.
Tell us about your partnerships
The establishment of partnerships is essential due to our perception of the complexity of social problems (in particular obesity) which only one policy is not able to solve. This complexity together with a great demand from the population requires the cooperation of public and private organizations, emerging new synergies.
And the non-profit organizations, as members of this partnership process, constitute a privileged model for the management of social policies.
The third sector depends on legitimacy and sustainability to develop new social programs. Thus, serious partnerships with government agencies and credible companies become the basis for the success of Institute Movere's actions.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$50,001‐100,000
Explain your selections
The project is currently supported by volunteer and investment of personal resources from friends and family. We receive individual donations through Internet fundraising. We have companies’ sponsorship as well as donations and corporate partnerships. We also raise funds through tax incentive laws with local government.
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
We plan it by working in research and development of the social franchise model that will enable the knowledge spread, expanding social impact and scalability.
We plan to work on expanding the consolidating social business making solid the organization’s sustainability.
Challenges
Which barriers to health and well-being does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Health behavior change
SECONDARY
Lack of access to targeted health information and education
TERTIARY
Limited access to preventative tools or resources
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Regarding behavior change, the families involvement has a fundamental role in the process and consequently in improving child health.
On the lack of access to education and information we carried out educational actions for prevention and treatment of obesity in children and adolescents and their families, promoting the well-being and health.
In order to address the limited access to prevention tools and resources, a systematic methodology was developed with a program of regular exercise, food re-education, behavior change and monitoring of clinical indicators as anthropometric, nutritional and psychological assessments.
How are you growing the impact of your organization or initiative?
Please select up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
SECONDARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
For the present and current impact the Movere Institute plans to train health and education professionals that will enable the social innovation scalability at the regional level first.
In the Spread of best practices we will be continuing the project Journey SIM reaching out 10 cities of São Paulo State influencing other organizations and institutions.
Regarding expand the geographical scope of the social innovation model it will be created a social franchise that will enable the social impact expansion.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Government, Technology providers, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies, Academia/universities.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
The partnership with the government allows part fundraising through tax incentive laws. Technology vendors help us on monitoring and analyzing the organization activities. NGOs offer complementary services to the target audience. Companies invest on us through tax incentive laws and by providing services and donations to beneficiaries. Universities collaborate carrying out various tests, and by elaborating academic studies leading to masters and doctorates.
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