Community Assessment of Physical Activity

for Children in the City of New Brunswick

Brielle Cattley
Kelsey Musselman
Maya Harb
Chelsea Dizon
Chelsea Cotugno
October 20, 2017 Christina Constantinou
Life Span Community Nutrition Kayla Samson

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 New Brunswick is a medium-sized, densely populated city located in the state of New

Jersey. It is an ethnically-diverse city with a population of 57,035 people and eleven constituent

neighborhoods. (US census 2016). New Brunswick is the nineteenth largest community in New

Jersey with a median age of 23.5 years old (US census 2016). Since the year 2000 there has been

a 17.5% increase in the New Brunswick population (US census 2016). The city is 100% urban,

and 0% rural (US census 2016).

The children who call New Brunswick home, describe themselves as belonging to a

variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent

group in New Brunswick, accounting for 55.80% of the citys residents, followed by

white/caucasian with 20.9%, African American with 13.2%, Asian with 8.5%, and lastly, some

unspecified races with 1.3% (Data USA 2016). It is important to note that people of Hispanic or

Latino origin can be of any race. Important ancestries of people in New Brunswick include

Italian, German, Polish, and English (Data USA 2016).

Our target population is children between the age of two and twelve years old. Children

constitute for 20.82% of the population, thus out of the 57,035 individuals that reside in New

Brunswick, 11,874 are children (Data USA 2016). Most of these children reside with their

parents in residential areas on Westone Mills, Raritan Gardens, Remsen Avenue, Jersey Avenue,

French street, George Street, Hamilton Street, and Joyce Kilmer Avenue (Data USA 2016).

These geographic areas are in near proximity of both schools and parks, thus making it an ideal

area for parents and children to live in. Since our target population is focused on school aged

children, it is understood that the children play no role in bringing an income to their families.

The degree of acculturation within the population varies. First there is the non-

acculturated population, whom only know how to navigate their daily lives within the standards

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of their native culture. Next there is the acculturated population, whom were born in the United

States with immigrant parents, but only know how to navigate daily life to the standard of

American culture. Finally, the semi-acculturated population, which includes those who can

navigate in both their native culture and American culture with ease.

The childrens literacy level is evident through school data performances. The city of

New Brunswicks rankings in academic performance and college career readiness significantly

lags in comparison to schools across the state. Additionally, its student growth performance lags

in comparison to schools throughout the state. In 2016, the children of New Brunswick

outperformed 6% of schools statewide, and 27% of schools educating students with similar

demographic characteristics (nj.gov 2016). Additionally, the children are meeting 42% of their

performance targets in the area of Academic Achievement (nj.gov 2016). Children of New

Brunswick are meeting 0% of their performance targets in the area of College and Career

Readiness (nj.gov, 2016).

The purpose of this community assessment was to determine the standards, needs,

barriers, and current situation as pertains to New Brunswicks adolescent population and

physical activity. Standard physical activity guidelines for children, as defined by the United

States Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), is 60 minutes or more of either

aerobic, muscle-strengthening, and/or bone-strengthening activities (USDHHS 2008). Each of

these three types of physical activity should be completed at least three times per week.

New Brunswicks adolescent population faces many issues in regards to gaining

sufficient physical activity. Factors that may contribute to lack of physical activity include poor

health, poor access to healthcare, lack of fitness mandates in school, limited or no access to

exercise facilities, and fear of crime.

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 The first issue faced by the children of New Brunswick, is poor health. In the Healthier

New Brunswick Community Survey, published April 2006, one in four children were considered

to be overweight or obese, with nearly another quarter of the population considered to be at risk

of being overweight (Cantor et al 2006). These numbers are significantly higher than the national

average which, at the time, was 15% for both children who were overweight, and at risk children

(Cantor et al 2006). Another major issue which can hinder physical activity is asthma, the most

common chronic childhood disease. One in ten children in New Brunswick suffer from asthma,

which is actually half the New Jersey urban rate, but plagues 15% of the target population

(Cantor et al 2006).

Aggravating, or potentially lending cause to, these health issues is poor access to

healthcare. According to a survey published by Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) in 2014, 24% of

New Brunswick residents surveyed stated that they obtain their primary care from the emergency

room (Pellerano et. al 2014). Of those surveyed, 20% of those surveyed said that it is very hard

or somewhat hard to obtain health care in New Brunswick (Pellerano et. al 2014). Additionally, a

2012 US Census estimates that as much as 32.6% of New Brunswicks population is without

health insurance (Pellerano et. al 2014). All of this culminates in limited access to physicians and

other medical professionals that can instruct the population on how to achieve the USDHHS 60

minutes of recommended physical activity a day. Information from parents of children in New

Brunswick state that only 19% of the target population is meeting the recommendation

(Pellerano et. al 2014). As little as 43% of the child population is getting 30 minutes of physical

activity today (Pellerano et. al 2014).

One of the shortcomings that children in New Brunswick face is the lack of mandated

physical activity in school. In the 2011 New Jersey Childhood Obesity Study, 55% of students

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report that they are involved in physical activity for two or fewer days a week at school (Lloyd,

et al 2011). Additionally, the target population is reported to have the lowest rates of physical

activity at school compared to other target populations (Pellerano et. al 2014).

The same study did a survey of New Brunswick and noted that the majority of

elementary and middle schools are located in heavily populated areas (Lloyd et al 2011).

However, the parks and other physical activity centers are primarily spread around the

boundaries of the city (Lloyd et al 2011). 19% of children do not have any parks in their

neighborhoods, and an additional 42% state that there are no exercise facilities in their area at all

(Lloyd et al 2011).

There are multiple potential reasons why children do not use the parks or other physical

activity centers in their area. Hazards stated by parents include lack of facilities (42%), traffic

(41%), criminal activity (36%) and unpleasant conditions (25%), assumed to be the state of the

parks (Pellerano et. al 2014). It is interesting to note that while there are areas in New Brunswick

that have as high as 3-4 times the national average of crime, primarily around the elementary and

middle schools, sources from New Brunswick Tomorrow claim that the crime rates are

significantly lower than in other urban areas in New Jersey (Santiago et al 2017). Comparatively,

in an evaluation of five New Jersey communities published in May 2011 (Camden, New

Brunswick, Newark, Trenton, and Vineland), which focused on not only issues that these urban

areas face, but also the disparities found within these low-income areas, parents of New

Brunswick children considered crime to be less of a deterrent to use exercise facilities/parks than

in any of the other four cities (Lloyd et al 2011).

In New Brunswick, the greatest clinical issue arising is obesity due to diet-related

factors. According to RWJ Medical Schools Measurement to Promote a Healthier New

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Brunswick, almost half of the New Brunswick public school children in every age group

(46.4% average for all ages) are overweight or obese with the highest rates (47.9%) seen among

the youngest, ages 3-5, and the lowest rates (44.0%) among the oldest, ages 12-19 (Ohri-

Vachaspati et al., 2010). With low-income children in the state, New Jersey's adult obesity rates

increased from 19.6% to 24.6% between 2001 and 2012, according to Healthy NJ 2020

(HealthyNJ2020). In addition to that, Healthy NJ 2020 states that, there has been a dramatic

increase in adults, teens and children who are either overweight or obese in New Jersey and

people who are physically active and eat nutritious foods are at a decreased risk of being

overweight and obese. (HealthyNJ2020). Obesity harm is very real it quadruples the risk of

diabetes, to name just one serious consequence, according to the NJ Obesity Prevention Plan.

The prevalence of obesity among children in the United States was 17.0% in 20112014,

according to the CDC, and the prevalence of obesity among preschool-aged children (25

years) (8.9%) was lower than among school-aged children (611 years) (17.5%) and adolescents

(1219 years) (20.5%). (CDC, 2008).

In the city of New Brunswick there are various resources for physical activity throughout

the year. New Brunswick is home to fifteen different parks, the majority of which have

playgrounds or fields for children to play on (thecityofnewbrunswick). Some of the amenities

included in these parks are walking tracks, tennis courts, and basketball courts. The largest of

these parks are Buccleuch and Boyd (thecityofnewbruswick). These two major parks are

maintained well by the city, but these parks are not completely accessible by everyone in the

city, as mentioned before (Jaymie Santiago).

There are also several community, church, and school gardens that are accessible in New

Brunswick (thecityofnewbrunswick). Some of these gardens are within the grounds of the public

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schools, and are therefore only accessible by students, but these school gardens provide learning

experiences for the students (thecityofnewbrunswick).

The elementary schools of New Brunswick also offer swimming lessons in conjunction

with the Robert Wood Johnson fitness center (Jaymie Santiago). This occurs about two times per

week that elementary students are transported to the fitness center (Jaymie Santiago). Students

are also encouraged to participate in daily recess, gym class, and extracurricular activities

through the schools and through the New Brunswick recreation centers (Jaymie Santiago).

During the summer, various day camps provide physical activity opportunities for

children to stay active when school is not in session. Rutgers Scarlet Knight Camp and the

YMCA summer camp are both available to New Brunswick children (rutgers.edu). However,

these camps can be costly. There are programs like Oasis Summer Camp through the Youth

Empowerment Services that provide summer programs for children grades five through eight to

participate, but these children need to raise money from sponsors to attend (YESNB). Also, there

is the Help New Brunswick Kids Play S.A.F.E. program during the summers where children of

ages six to twelve have access to different activities throughout the summer, but the website for

this program is not very up to date so it is unclear if it has been running during recent summers

(Patch).

Many organizations, agencies, and services exist in the New Brunswick community that

provide residents with amenities which promote health and wellness. The first organization that

contributes to the city is the New Brunswick Cultural Center. This agency influences cultural

development and economic growth of arts and entertainment in the city of New Brunswick (New

Brunswick Cultural Center). They are responsible for hosting annual events such as the Hub City

Music Festival, as well as, Hub City Sounds. These types of events advocate physical wellness

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and administer ways to stay active because they encourage residents, specifically children, to

sing and dance and interact with people from different neighborhoods. It also provides an

opportunity for kids to grow in an environment where they are able to learn from a variety of

cultures. The New Brunswick Cultural Center is supported by Johnson and Johnson and

Middlesex County. The Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders provided a grant award

from the Middlesex County Cultural and Arts Trust Fund to fund the center (New Brunswick

Cultural Center).

Another organization called New Brunswick Tomorrow is a non-profit organization that

identifies community needs and issues and develop solutions to improve the livelihood of the

community (New Brunswick Tomorrow). They are supported by Robert Wood Johnson

University Hospital, Johnson & Johnson, and other organizations. One recent work of New

Brunswick Tomorrow that helped the target audience is reversing the trend of childhood obesity.

With the support from Robert Wood Johnson, they formed The New Jersey Partnership for

Healthy Kids -- New Brunswick. This project is co-directed by New Brunswick Tomorrow and

the Raritan Valley YMCA. The projects goal is to change the direction of childhood obesity

rates by improving access to affordable healthy foods and beverages, and especially by

increasing opportunities for physical activity in the community.

Lastly, the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Metuchen provides quality services to the poor,

vulnerable, and all people in need and partners with families and communities to improve the

quality of life (Diocese of Metuchen). This organization provides services in different

communities across Middlesex County, however they also have bases in other counties of New

Jersey. In particular, they contribute child care services, such as the Youth Enrichment Services

(YES), which is located directly in New Brunswick, that ensure every child becomes a successful

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learner. Not only do these services improve learning, but they also provide affordable child care

and summer camp programs. Summer camp programs are extremely valuable, especially for

children living in low income communities because it gives them the opportunity to engage in

activities that keep them active in which their own communities may be lacking. Catholic

Charities, Diocese of Metuchen is supported by other organizations such as, Joint Commission

and United Way. They are all nonprofit organizations who partner with one another to enhance

the quality of life of the residents of their communities.

As a community nutritionist, the best partners to recruit to further the mission for keeping

children of the New Brunswick community physically active is New Brunswick Tomorrow. New

Brunswick Tomorrow works to remain active and involved within the community to ensure that

the residents of New Brunswick have everything that they need. They are also based in the

community, which provides leverage for them to get a hands-on experience on the issues and

needs the community may be facing. By having this advantage, they are better able to develop

solutions that attempt to accommodate almost all of the citizens in need. Solutions, such as

developing ways to keep children physically active, are one way that New Brunswick Tomorrow

may resolve these issues more easily compared to the other organizations, because they include

employees that have grown up in the city, such as Manuel Castaneda, the Director of Community

Health. With locally based employees, the organization is better able to gain a perspective on the

needs and issues in the community.

Given that Rutgers University is immersed in the city of New Brunswick, many of the

events that occur in New Brunswick are related to, or executed by, the Rutgers community.

However, there are a number of events in the city of New Brunswick that are open to the

community on a regular basis. One of New Brunswicks main scheduled community events is,

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New Brunswick Ciclovia. New Brunswick Ciclovia is a free initiative that takes place across the

city and attempts to promote healthy active living. During Ciclovia, all the streets of New

Brunswick are closed to cars for 5 hours (Torres 2017), and essentially allow for people to walk,

run, bike, skate, or just enjoy and explore the city streets. There are typically three to four

different Ciclovia scheduled dates throughout the year; with the focus being on the spring,

summer and fall seasons. New Brunswick Ciclovia is a huge opportunity for various

organizations to get the people of the community more involved in benefitting their own health.

There are a number of different sponsors and volunteers that participate on the day of Ciclovia,

and thus this may be the perfect opportunity to further educate the target population on the

importance of physical activity.

Another example of a scheduled community event in New Brunswick is the Fall Festival.

This is a seasonal festival day for children scheduled at Rutgers Gardens. This again, aims to

get children moving and outside. Things like a scavenger hunt, visiting the animals, and playing

games are scheduled to keep the children busy and entertained. These types of events happen to

address the concern that children are not getting enough physical activity, in that they are aimed

towards getting children to be more active and live a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.

There are additional resources outside New Brunswicks immediate community, such as

the larger supermarkets in both Edison and Highland Park, the Raritan Bay YMCA, and other

recreation centers in neighboring towns.

The patterns of social interactions in New Brunswick may restrict young children from

getting the recommended amount of physical activity due to the high poverty rate of the

community, lack of transportation, and dual income families. During the school year

(September-June) school aged children spend a majority of their day inside the classroom, rather

10
than outside exercising. New Brunswick middle schools and high schools (grades 6-12) provide

the opportunities for students to join after-school sports teams (New Brunswick Schools 2016).

However, New Brunswick elementary schools do not provide any intramural sports for their

students.

The low-income status of families in New Brunswick prevents community members from

participation in fitness centers of local gyms that may cost a standard fee. As previously stated,

the closest YMCA to New Brunswick is the Raritan Bay YMCA. The athletic club offers many

recreational sports and classes to children of all ages, however there is a membership fee to be a

part of the YMCA, in addition to the costs of specific activities at the club. For families with

more than one child, paying to be a member of the YMCA is not a plausible way to get children

the physical activity that they need (Raritan Valley YMCA 2015). Due to the low-income status

of the community, unless an activity or recreational center is free, it will likely not be utilized by

those in the community.

Additionally, many members of the community lack the transportation to get to places

like parks, the gym, or the YMCA. A majority of the community does not own a car, rather they

walk wherever they need to go. As many as 29.3% of households in New Brunswick do not own

a car, while 34.7% of households share one car (Data USA 2015). Although walking to where

they need to go provides extra exercise, it also limits the places they can go to. Also, when it

becomes cold outside, children are significantly less likely to be outside walking, and most likely

barely meet the recommendation for daily physical activity. Some members of the community

ride bikes, which is a great form of exercise, however, many of the bike riders are adult men,

using bicycles as a way to get to work. Less often we see young children riding bikes as a form

of exercise.

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 Due to dual-income families in the community, there is frequently no guardian home to

take children out of the house for exercise. When the parent/guardian(s) are working, children

often come home from school and stay at home until their parents return from work. At a young

age, it is not appropriate for children to be walking to local parks on their own. Furthermore, data

shows that children are spending proportionally too much time looking at a computer or phone

screen both while at school and at home. Screen time is not closely monitored amongst children,

especially when parents use technology to occupy their children when they are working.

These common social interactions in New Brunswick address the concern of lack of

physical activity amongst children in several ways. Sports teams in middle schools and high

schools help kids become more active, so long as the equipment is available to them at little or

no cost. Frequent walking as a form of transportation provides extra physical activity.

Interactions between the Raritan Valley YMCA and New Brunswick schools might

further the mission of getting young children to be more physically active. The YMCA may be

able to work with the school system by providing children with transportation from the school to

the YMCA and back. This interaction would make it simple for children to be more active while

overcoming the barrier of transportation and two working parents. Additionally, reduced prices

of YMCA membership may be necessary in order to include more low income community

members in the leap to get children more physically active.

There are several county officials in Middlesex County whom advocate for a healthier

and more active lifestyle as well as promoting better education about healthy lifestyles. Charles

E. Tomaro, whom holds the chair of county Administration in Middlesex County, is dedicated to

his goal of improving the quality of life for Middlesex County residents (Middlesex County

2014). Tomaro spent some time living in New Brunswick while studying Business Management.

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Before attending Rutgers, he attended Middlesex County College (Middlesex County 2014).

After calling this community home for so many years, Tomaro would be a great leader to get

involved in any projects related to bettering the community

Another important leader to get involved is Freeholder Kenneth Armwood, Chair of

Business Development and Education Committee. Armwood is a lifelong resident of Piscataway

and is dedicated to offering the best devices and tools for children in the community to learn

(Middlesex County 2014). He has been involved in public service within the Middlesex

community since the age of 19. As a councilman, Mr. Armwood was involved in the renovation

of Quibbletown Park, where the All Childrens Playground was designed for children with or

without disabilities so that they can play together, providing Middlesex County with one of the

most unique parks in the State (Middlesex County 2014). Armwood is dedicated to the health

and wellness of all children in the community, and therefore he would be a key leader and

politician to have on board for any wellness projects posed to take place in the community.

Furthermore, more opinion leaders could be found in the staff and board members of

New Brunswicks school systems. Often the teachers and board of education are on board to

participate in any programs that will help the children live a healthier lifestyle while also being

better educated about healthy habits. School boards, PTO, Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, and

churches all contain opinion leaders whom may be beneficial to have on board with a community

project for the betterment of childrens health.

It is necessary to have involvement from local politicians and local educators as well as

having involvement from parents and children within the community. If parents and children

show an interest in wanting to better their own communities, more opinion leaders are likely to

welcome the idea. Freeholders such as Charles E. Tomaro, and Kenneth Armwood are important

13
figures to get involved with activities in the community because they have power and money to

put new programs into effect.

New Brunswick, as a city with over three times the poverty as the statewide average

(Poverty in New Brunswick 2017), faces significant difficulties when attempting to overcome

the issues pertaining to adolescent physical activity. Many of these issues can be attributed to the

high rates of poverty within New Brunswicks community. Poor access to healthcare, which

often results in poor health in children, is disproportionately high in low-income communities

(Thomas 2014). New Brunswick is no exception with nearly 50% of the adolescent population

either obese, overweight, or at risk.

Another barrier, which has a correlation with poverty, is a consistent lack of

transportation among the families of the target population. While New Brunswick is equipped

with fifteen parks, as well as multiple fitness facilities, both within the city and in surrounding

towns, lack of transportation prevents the majority of the population from being able to utilize

their resources. New Brunswick is 5.23 square miles (New Brunswick, New Jersey 2017) and

can be difficult to traverse on foot. The crime rates, listed to be a concern for 36% percent of the

overall population (Pellerano et all 2014), also adds to the undesirability of walking to each of

these locations.

The next barrier that high rates of poverty contributes to is the inability of adolescents to

participate in the programs available due to high membership fees. New Brunswick has multiple

recreational sport programs, but due to the sign-up fees, attendance from the target population is

low (DAlonzo 2017). Other resources, like Raritan Bay YMCA or summer camps, also have

admission fees and can be too costly for the families of the target population. It is important to

14
note that the elementary schools in New Brunswick do not have school-facilitated sports

available to the target population.

The final barrier to success in promoting physical activity among adolescents, is the lack

of support from the school system. As previously stated, New Brunswicks elementary schools

do not provide after-school sports programs for the younger target population. Additionally,

standards for physical activity for adolescents reportedly results in exercise two or fewer days

per week (Lloyd et all 2011).

Despite the many barriers that persist within the community, there are several objectives that

may be used to improve the physical activity of children in New Brunswick:

1. The physical activity levels of children can be increased in New Brunswick by

partnering up with New Brunswick Tomorrow, to create after school programs

that are intended to initiate, create, and support opportunities to participate in

physical activity and/or to promote the benefits of physical activity. Examples of

potential activities may include but are not limited to: Training sessions and

workshops that help increase/improve physical activity and networking

opportunities, and innovating partnerships within the community such as

sport/recreation forums.

2. Find financially accessible ways for children to stay active throughout the

summer. One way to do this would be for the various summer camps listed to

provide scholarships to their programs to a certain number of students in each age

group. This would encourage children to work hard in school so that they are able

to have a truly enjoyable and active summer. The members of New Brunswick

15
 Tomorrow as well as representatives from the individual summer camps would be

the most direct groups to work with to make this a possibility for children.

3. The physical activity of school aged children could be increased to meet

USDHHS standards if a partnership between the Raritan Bay YMCA and New

Brunswick school systems were implemented. The YMCA may be able to work

with the school to provide children with transportation from the school to the

YMCA and back. This interaction would make it simple for children to be more

active while overcoming the barrier of transportation and two working parents.

This objective would require transportation from the township, similarly to the

middle school and high school sports teams being bussed around for games.

4. All elementary schools should host a Field Day every semester that promote

physical activity. During this free event, teachers and/or adults who have

extensive knowledge in health and fitness will provide lessons teaching children

how to find strategies in which they can be active around the community. Not

only will these trainers help children find everyday physical activities, they will

also demonstrate a variety of simple workout routines that young children can

perform at home. By educating young children on multiple approaches on staying

active, they can execute this newfound knowledge outside of the school, where

they can also coach others about being physically active.

5. The cleanliness and safety of the recreational parks in New Brunswick can be

improved by collaborating with the Urban Cleanup Team of the Clean

Communities Council of New Jersey and the New Brunswick Police Department.

A clean park for the children and families of New Brunswick will allow greater

16
 access for everyone to do physical activity in. By helping to advertise and

advocate for Urban Cleanup Week, more people will be willing to aide in the

cleanup activities for their community. The frequency of Urban Cleanup Week

should be advocated for once a month, instead of 1-2 times a year. This way, the

parks can be cleaned more often, which will allow for a more aesthetically

pleasing physical activity environment. The safety of the park should be acted

upon by adding features such as sidewalks, lighting, and community policing.

This can be done by partnering up with the New Brunswick Police Department to

ensure constant safety for the kids and their families.

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