Drop Sugary Drinks Report

DROP SUGARY DRINKS Report Inter Tribal Sports, Inc. www.intertibalsports.com

Rez Dogg Refreshments: Community Health Assessment was funded by Notah Begay III Foundation 2017 “Drop Sugary Drinks!” Grant ITS would like to thank our Board Members, staff, coaches, families, athletes, local partners for their support on this project.

Table of Contents Project Goals ....................................................................... 2 Community Assessment .................................................... 3-4 Impact ................................................................................... 5 Outcome .............................................................................. 6 Notes .................................................................................... 7 SERVICE AREA MAP (INSIDE BACK COVER) 1

RETHINK YOUR DRINK 2

Rez Dogg became ITS’ official mascot in 2010. He is the official Health and Wellness Ambassador of ITS and often attends ITS and partner outreach events throughout the service area. Project Goals Through our Rez Dogg Refreshments (RDR) Program, ITS has come to an understanding that questions regarding the relationship to our food/beverage behavior still exist in our community. While the RDR program continues to heavily outreach and educate Native youth in southern California regarding the importance of healthy beverage choices, the community assessment opportunity allowed ITS to be a stronger catalyst for positive change. The more we can understand our communities’ perceptions, the more we can understand how various influences drive their decision making. Our goal was to learn how the RDR program can counter act other unhealthy messaging. During the community assessment period, our mascot Rez Dogg, traveled around our service area sharing his love for healthy beverages, all while educating our community with the Rethink Your Drink Campaign resources, visual aids, games, and incentives. 3

Community Assessment During the community assessment, ITS used various elements to evaluate the community. All of these elements were very well received. The majority of our people in our service area quite enjoyed learning and sampling non-sugary drinks, providing their opinions, and receiving ITS branded incentive items. ITS conducted surveys and observations to help ITS better understand the relationship between our community and sugary drinks during our game days and events. By the end of the survey period over 200 surveys were taken with the majority being 18 years or younger. We found several key findings with our surveys and observations. Over 60% of people stated they drink sugary beverages on a weekly basis. The majority of people also felt that local stores are too far to access or when they are accessible they do not have healthy drink options available. Another key finding that we found, was our communities ability to identify a non-sugary drink. This may lead someone to believe that there is a correlation between the lack of knowledge to identify healthy beverages and why people felt there is an absence of access to healthy drinks in local stores. 4

In order for the campaign to be successful, ITS decided to have the platform run under our existing Rez Dogg Refreshment program, which already provides healthy snacks and water, to further educate our youth and community on healthy non-sugary drink alternatives and provide samples at no cost. This was confirmed to be a good decision as 75% stated that if ITS provided healthy, non-sugary drinks at our events, they would drink them and over 15% might even be willing to try them. Whether they love the different drink options or not, our community had the opportunity to try all our samples during our events. Our hope was that the families would incorporate these alternative drinks into their daily lives. ITS believed that if we introduced non-sugary beverages through our Rez Dogg Refreshment program it would be highly receptive. Ultimately, using the Rethink Your Drink Campaign to help educate and reduce young Native children’s consumption of sugary- sweetened beverages and promote healthier beverage options such as water, indigenous teas, and infused water was an excellent idea. 5

Impact During our grant period, ITS impacted over 1,200 native youth, along with their families and community members. At game day and outreach events, everyone enjoyed trying our healthy beverages along with our Rez Dogg approved meals and snacks. Many people in our community had the opportunity to try something new, such as our diverse flavors of infused waters and coconut water. Our community was also ecstatic about our ITS themed incentives that were provided during our survey periods. Everyone enjoyed the incentives so much that they became more excited about fueling up before, during and after games in a healthy way. The purchases of additional program equipment, such as the canopies and infused water dispensers, allowed ITS to provide more streamlined events and increased the ITS brand and image. The presentation of the healthy beverages at our events helped the community to be more inclined to participate in trying our Rethink your drink campaign. 6

Outcome ITS learned through our surveys and feedback that our community enjoys drinking healthy beverages when they are given a chance to try them. Many adults that have tried our healthy beverages spoke with ITS staff about their own creations at home. Since the completion of our grant, we have decided to officially add the Rethink Your Drink Campaign, changing the name to Drop Sugary Drinks, a permanent part of the Rez Dogg Refreshments program. Our community will continue to be given a chance to try new diverse healthy beverages during game days and events. This will hopefully continue to lead our community members to change their \"sugary beverage\" mentality and make informed decisions regarding the beverages they consume. 7

Notes 8

Area Detailed Contact Information Inter Tribal Sports, Inc. 40880 County Center Drive, Suite K, Temecula, CA 92591 P: 951-719-3444 F: 951-719-3466 [email protected] www.intertribalsports.org Service Area Map Inter Tribal Sports Participating Tribes/Organization Partner Tribes/Organization Service Map created from Esri, Here, Garmin, © OpenStreetMap contributors, the GIS user community, Esri, HERE, Garmin, NGA, USGS, NPS, Esri, TomTom, U.S. Department of Commerce, and U.S. Census Bureau Photography and Design by Inter Tribal Sports Printing by Tribal Print Source, a Division of Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association © 2018 Inter Tribal Sports, Inc. 9