UDA Resilience Program

Aim

Our aim is to pilot a series of resilience programs which teach children and young people how to cope with stress positively.

About UDA 

UDA  is based in the London borough of Southwark and has innovated its offering to provide services which improves emotional wellbeing through physical fitness; trying to counter the increasing rate of anxiety and depression in children.

In recent years, we have seen a steady increase in two major problems within our younger generations:

1.mental health problems are now affecting a huge 1 in 8 children between 5 and 19 years old.

2.obesity effects 27% of children, this is a problem that tends to affect areas with low income, with obesity figures doubling in comparison to richer areas. 

At UDA we run projects and activities that incorporates dance, gymnastics and fencing; our services include workshops, community projects, afterschool club sessions and holiday club programs in conjunction with other local businesses.

About the Program 

The UDA resilience program will use Street dance, gymnastics and fencing as a tool for fitness based activities, while developing emotional resilience by teaching and promoting the use of 3 tools. Those 3 tools are positive affirmations, mindfulness and goal setting. 

Our coaches for this program will not only be physical educators, but also mentors trained to support the emotional wellbeing of children and to create a safe space for them to build both confidence and physical skills. Studies have proven that physical and emotional wellbeing are closely linked, when one depreciates, so does the other and vice versa. This program will pair the strengthening of both together to encourage children and young people to stay in shape and learn about their emotional wellbeing at the same time.

Our plan is to deliver the program in schools as part of extra curriculum activities, we have chosen to do this because it gives as wider access to young people plus it also allows young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to be able to access this program through their school.

As we have a sport element to our program, this enables it to fall into the sports premium budget. The sports premium budget is an allocated fund from the government of up to £20,000 that schools can use on sports.

How the program works:

• The resilience program includes training and resources (lesson plans and fencing kits)
• Two sets of programmes have been created, a set suitable for primary age (5-11yrs)  and another for secondary age (12-16yrs).
• There are 3 schemes of work: Lets Dance, Lets Gym and Lets Fence
• 'LET' stands for learning emotional resilience through...
• I have also designed a set  programmes dedicated to year 6 to help with the transition from primary to secondary school. The mindset coaching exercises are tailored especially to help students cope with transitioning.
• Each scheme of work has 3 terms (autumn, spring, summer) 
• Each term is made up of 10  sessions, 1 session is to be taught per week, each session is an hour
• In each session 30 - 45mins are spent on physical activity,15 -20mins at the end of each session is spent on mindset coaching.
• Each term has an area of focus which are as follows:
• Term 1 - Be unique - which explores self esteem, constructive criticism, confidence, how to use affirmations and what makes you, you? 
• Term 2 - Dream Big - Learning mindfulness and exploring what you want to be when you grow up?
• Term 3 - Stay Ambitious -  learning about goal setting, how to stay focused, new healthy habits and success.

About the Founder

I, Katrina Thomas am the  founder and  director of UDA, I have a background in dance, fencing and gymnastics. When I became a mother to a son with ADHD, I changed my dance career to accommodate for my number one priority while continuing my passion for dance.

UDA was born when my son was diagnosed with ADHD, leading to anxiety and depression. I used ball games, dancing and calisthenics paired with homework to reprogram the way my son learned, to reset his relationship with education and manage his emotions.

While working with my son at home, I was coaching dance and sports both in schools and the community. Over the years I slowly introduced the methods I was using at home with other children and I've seen amazing results in the emotional wellbeing of the children I encounter. Physical wellbeing is strongly linked with confidence and resilience and it’s been proven that a healthy body and a healthy mind go hand in hand.

How We Will Use The Funds Raised 

The resilience program was due to be released in September 2020 and delivered by trained UDA coaches. However, because of Covid 19 I have  altered the program slightly so that the program can be either delivered by UDA coaches; or a school can buy the program which comes with resources and training. The reason for these changes is because schools now have to teach using social bubbles and some will not be using external providers for a while.

Funds raised for this project will cover:

• the design and print of each schemes of work needed for 8 pilots. That is a total of 8 programs, which amounts to 270 lesson plans.
• impact measurement tools - we are considering using the class charts program.
• development of training for facilitators of the program- training will be the same for UDA coaches and school teachers.
• resources needed to deliver training. i.e. supporting documents, facilities for staff training, teaching assistants.
• resources for the delivery of the program i.e. fencing kit
•  running costs of pilots for each scheme of work - we will carry out 8 pilots across the academic year.

This project successfully funded on 8th September 2020