Overview of SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness

In order to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens, Boys & Girls Clubs focuses on three priority outcome areas: Academic Success, Healthy Lifestyles, and Good Character and Citizenship. 

SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness is a targeted program in BGCA’s Health and Wellness core program area that supports Healthy Lifestyles. It builds the foundational social-emotional and health skills that will enable youth to make healthy decisions. People with better social-emotional skills report participating in fewer risk behaviors, including substance use and smoking.^{i ii} To address this, successful prevention programs should focus on building the social-emotional skills that serve as protective factors in youth and support them in avoiding risk behavior. Programs should focus specifically on self-control, emotional awareness, communication and problem solving.ⁱⁱⁱ

Many health programs only identify and address risk and protective factors that are most associated with a young person’s ability to avoid risky behavior. This version of SMART Moves uses a health-promotion approach, which is focused on also building attitudes and skills that support healthy decision-making in young people. This new approach incorporates youth voice and choice in their ability to make healthy decisions.

SMART Moves is a suite of health promotion programs, focused on building the key attitudes and skills necessary for youth to make decisions about their health. Although health education is typically considered a school-based topic, health education requirements, content and quality vary amongst school districts. Some of the biggest gaps in content are related to risk behaviors such as substance use, tobacco use and sexual health.^iv This means Boys & Girls Clubs and Youth Centers can play an important role in providing the knowledge and skills related to these specific health topics and help youth practice healthy decision-making. SMART Moves bridges this gap by providing asset-based health promotion content aligned with the most important social-emotional skills necessary for healthy decision-making. This is reflected in the name of the program: SMART is an acronym for Skills Mastery and Resilience Training. 

SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness is one in a suite of programs that can be used to help youth develop healthy decision-making attitudes and skills. Each program resource reflects contemporary youth development best practices in a flexible format that allows Clubs to customize learning to the needs and interests of their youth and communities. SMART Moves: EmotionalWellness should be implemented before SMART Moves: Core, which should be implemented before any of the SMART Moves Modules. These program resources are described below.

SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness

This targeted program focuses on positive coping strategies that build three cognitive-behavior skills most linked to helping youth avoid negative thought patterns and negative behaviors. These skills are self-regulation, impulse control and stress management. Participating youth will build an effective toolbox for self-management and coping. Once they master these foundational skills, youth will be ready to apply the knowledge and practice the behaviors covered in SMART Moves: Core.

SMART Moves: Core

This targeted health promotion program focuses on building social-emotional skills such as effective communication, decision-making and refusal skills. As such, the program addresses many of the risk and protective factors that may determine whether young people engage in risky health behaviors such as e-cigarette and opioid use.

The goal of SMART Moves: Core is to influence attitudes and teach essential skills that enable youth to make healthy decisions about risk behaviors. As a result of participation, youth will be able to:

•    Create a positive view of their personal future

•    Apply decision-making skills to health behaviors

•    Use effective communication skills to talk about health behaviors

•    Demonstrate resistance skills to avoid peer pressure

•    Analyze media influence on self-image and health behavior

•    Access and process health information online 

SMART Moves Modules

SMART Moves Modules cover specific health behaviors; participants use and apply the skills from SMART Moves: Core. These modules dive deeply into the health behavior and risks associated with the behavior, and build the knowledge, attitudes and skills of youth to avoid the behavior. 

Health and Wellness Core Program Area

Health and Wellness programs and initiatives provide opportunities for youth to focus explicitly on building social-emotional skills; these skills include their ability to foster positive relationships with themselves and others, regulate emotions and solve problems. In addition, youth build knowledge, attitudes and skills in healthy decision-making by building social-emotional skills most closely linked to healthy decision-making, and then explore a range of health topics and behaviors, including substance use, sexual behavior and violence.

Targeted programs and high-yield activities in this area are linked to the Healthy Lifestyles priority outcome area.

Health and Wellness Outcome Statement: Youth will build resilience and health skills to make informed decisions about their own health, leading to positive health outcomes. Youth development practices that support teaching and learning are core to the quality of Health and Wellness programs. Effective Health and Wellness programs, when facilitated with high-quality youth development practices, help youth develop the attitudes, behaviors and skills needed to make healthy decisions about their own wellness.

Health and Wellness Attitudes and Skills: In order to make healthy decisions, youth need to build not only attitudes and skills related to health behaviors, but also social-emotional skills. All Health and Wellness programs, including those in the SMART Moves suite, are designed to buildthe social-emotional skills most closely aligned with healthy decision-making andpositive health outcomes.

Importance of Environmental Factors in Healthy Decision-Making

Youth make decisions about health based on many internal factors such as their belief in their ability to communicate effectively or positive health beliefs; but research tells us that social and environmental factors also have an impact on decision-making. In addition to building attitudes and skills within programs, the Health and Wellness core program area seeks to address and strengthen the social and environmental aspects that contribute to healthy decision-making.

By facilitating the SMART Moves suite in a group setting and creating opportunities for youth to share their values and attitudes with each other, it directly shapes youth’s positive peer influence on each other. Additionally, by providing supplementary family and caregiver resources that include discussion guides, extension activities and on-site activities, youth are able to better build health communication skills and external support for their healthy choices. Communication with trusted adults is linked with youth’s ability to avoid risky health behaviors.

Health and Wellness Programs and Resources

BGCA has developmentally appropriate programs and resources for all age groups.^v

Mapping SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness to National Standards

Health and Wellness programs are aligned to the Common Core State Standards as well as the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning Standards (CASEL). These standards are specific, developmentally appropriate learning goals that describe a skill that youth should be able to do after learning certain content. The CommonCore is a set of academic standards in language arts and mathematics that detail rigorous learning goals by grade level. It also references “Core Habits of Mind,” which describe key ways of thinking demonstrated by young people who have met the Common Core standards. The Common Core has been adopted by 41 states as well as the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.^vi The Common Core standards don’t explicitly address social and emotional learning, so BGCA programs have also been mapped to the Core SEL Standards as defined by CASEL.

SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness is mapped by module for each age group. For a full list of the National Mapped Standards, please see page 351-356 in Appendix C.

For more information about the Common Core and CASEL standards, visit BGCA.net and search for: "Mapping Our Programs to National Standards.”

Youth Development Professionals’ Role in Healthy Decision-Making

Positive youth development is an intentional approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups and families in a manner that is productive and constructive. It recognizes, uses and enhances young people’s strengths, and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership strengths.^vii

Youth development practices that support teaching and learning are core to the quality of Health and Wellness programs. Effective Health and Wellness programs, when facilitated with high-quality youth development practices, will help youth develop the attitudes, behaviors and skills needed to become effective and engaged learners who are on track to graduate with a plan for the future.

Youth development professionals can help all youth build resiliency skills when they:

•    Establish and maintain Group Agreements at the start of any routineprogrammatic   experience to establish a safe environment for sharing andlearning.

•    Provide frequent opportunities for youth to reflect on their experiences.

•    Respond to youth’s behaviors in ways that encourage them tocommunicate their feelings and self-regulate.

•    Provide the opportunity and space for youth to check in emotionally during the Club day and recognize trends in emotions and modify programming asnecessary.

•    Programmatic and environmental adaptations to support the identities of all youthincluding youth with disabilities, and youth who identify as LGBTQ.

•    Give youth opportunities to independently recognize and solve problems anddecisions about health.

•    Integrate trauma-informed approaches throughout the Club day, andespecially within health programs and activities.

Youth development professionals can help all youth become more effective healthy decision-makers when they:

•    Model healthy decision-making among members including healthy eating, physical activity, healthy communication with others and emotional well-being.

•    Avoid the use of shaming and values-based language related to health suchas “good and bad” or “right and wrong.”

•    Model appropriate self-disclosure about healthy behavior by refraining from sharingpersonal health information.

•    Establish themselves as health resources by addressing all questions about health-related issues with medically accurate answers or linking youth toresources.

•    Facilitate structured and unstructured opportunities for youth to talk with each other about health issues, peer pressure to engage in unhealthy behaviorsand resistance strategies.

•    Leverage opportunities to connect decision making about health to a youth’svision for their future self.

•    Create opportunities for youth to be advocates for healthy behavior among theirpeers at the Club or Youth Center and within the community.

•    Use opportunities to recognize members who are making healthy choicesindividually and as groups.

Positive Youth Development Supports Character and Social-Emotional Development

All Boys & Girls Club or Youth Center programs offer opportunities for youth development professionals to model, recognize, reinforce and reflect on character development. Positive youth development provides direction for how you interact with, engage and model behavior for youth. You get to shape the lives of young people every day. As a result, you set the expectations and show youth what essential character traits (e.g., caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness) mean, and how they look. These character traits come to life when youth practice social-emotional skills like teamwork, conflict management and emotional regulation.

Youth can start to build character using “caught and taught” approaches. Youth “catch” social-emotional skills when they observe youth development professionals modeling them, and when they interact with peers. Youth can also be “taught” skills to build good character when the skills are explicitly introduced and practiced through program sessions and activities. Use this formula to understand how character develops over time:

Youth Development Professionals Model Good Character+ Youth Practice Skills Regularly = Character Development

Youth development professionals facilitating the SMART Moves suite can model good character in the way they support all youth, offer feedback rather than criticism, and encourage honesty and responsibility.

To build character traits, include many opportunities for youth to practice the social-emotional skills embedded in SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness. These include skills related to:

•    How youth feel about themselves

•    Their relationships with others

•    Their ability to regulate emotions

•    Their ability to solve problems

When character development is present:

•    Youth development professionals model and youth practice skills that display respect, fairness, trustworthiness, responsibility ,caring and citizenship

•    Youth successfully get along well with others

•    Youth are better able to control their emotions and solve problems

 When character development is absent:

•    Youth do not feel a sense of belonging at the Club or Youth Center

•    Youth lack skills that foster positive peer relationships

 •    Youth lack self-control and act out in frustration

For more information, visit BGCA.net and search for "Program Basics BLUEprint," see pg 22: “Practicing Social-Emotional Skills to Achieve Character Development.” It will show you the specific social-emotional skills young people should practice in order to be able to demonstrate positive behaviors indicative of the six essential character traits.

 Practice Positive Youth Development to Create Inclusive Clubs or Youth Centers

Inclusion is a core component to build a safe, positive environment in your Clubs or Youth Centers. In order to fulfill our mission, Clubs or Youth Centers must create safe, positive and inclusive environments for all youth and teens – including every race, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, ability, socio-economic status and religion. By creating inclusive environments at our Club or Youth Center, we improve the overall experience for all young people. When youth development professionals use positive youth development practices, they help ensure that all youth:

•    Feel represented

•    Have a sense of belonging

•    Can meaningfully participate in programming

As you implement SMART Moves, consider strategies that help youth feel affirmed, safe and engaged with Club or Youth Center experiences. To download more information on building and sustaining an inclusive environment, visit BGCA.net and search for "Program Basics BLUEprint."

Maintaining a Safe Environment for Program Facilitation

Although the SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness program does not introduce or cover sensitive topics like abuse or child safety, asking youth to discuss their emotions has the potential to elicit youth responses that require staff follow up. Due to the nature of this material, BGCA strongly recommends the use of the following best practice implementation guidelines.

Prioritize Physical and Emotional Safety: Before facilitating the any SMART Moves sessions or related modules, it will be essential to review your Club or Youth Center’s safety policies, and be prepared to respond and report, should youth disclose past or current abuse, or urgent mental health issues. For immediate safety and life-threatening mental health concerns, call 911. For concerns of past abuse or ongoing abuse, neglect or endangerment, follow your state’s mandated reporting requirements. In addition, make sure to report safety-related incidents according to your organizational policies, and use the BGCA’s Safety Helpline for additional support at 866-607-SAFE.

For more information that can support you in creating physically and emotionally safe program environments, visit the Safety page on BGCA.net for the latest resources on:

•    Safety Policies and Actions

•    Mandated Reporting

•    Disclosures of Abuse

 If you have questions about using these resources in your Club or Youth Center, or general safety questions, please reach out to the safety team at childsafety@bgca.org.

As you prepare to facilitate SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness, you’ll see facilitator notes labeled “Important Note About Emotional Safety” that serve as a reminder to listen closely to youth’s responses and follow up with reporting or additional support as needed.

Seek Training to Support Implementation: Since this subject matter is related to identifying emotions, and building effective coping strategies when youth feel a strong emotion, it may be beneficial to consider the ways in which trauma might impact youth’s understand of emotion, and their emotional reactions to various situations. Consider training in the following topics, prior to facilitating the emotional wellness program to develop an increased understanding of youth’s varying backgrounds: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma Informed Care (TIC). For more information and free online TIC trainings and resources, visit the National Child Traumatic Stress Network at nctsn.org/resources/training. For more information on ACEs, visit CDC.gov.

Make referrals when needed: Emotional Wellness is a skill-building program that focuses on self-awareness and self-management, as well as social application of the skills learned. It is not a therapy or counseling tool and should not be used in this way. Understanding your role and professional ability as a youth development staff is critical. Some of the sessions may cause youth to become emotional, share personal stories about past trauma, or even open up about their mental health. It is important to keep in mind that you are not expected to take on the role of a therapist or counselor, nor would it be ethical for you to do so. You should, however, be able to recognize when youth are disclosing abuse or another traumatic event, and to report it as appropriate.

You are not alone in supporting Club youth. There are many caring adults and professionals available who are able to provide support when necessary. If you have a social worker or therapist on staff, ask them to be available to step in if needed during or after the program. If you do not have a social or therapist on staff, consider familiarizing yourself with the local agencies in your area and make referrals when needed.

Use the following resources when making a referral:

•    BGCA Incident Response Guide: To access, visit BGCA.net and search for “Incident Response Guide.”

•    Visit 211.org for more information on local resources.

•    For non-life-threatening mental health concerns, consider using the free Crisis Text Line by texting CLUB or 741741 to text with a trained crisis counselor 24/7. This resource should be used in collaboration with parental support.

 Create a Safe Space: Create a welcoming and comfortable environment by:

•    Providing a variety of comfortable seating options, soft lighting, calming music and optional fidgets/manipulatives. Examples of manipulatives include: puzzles, pipe cleaners, putty, paper and crayons, etc.

•    Establishing Group Agreements and norms prior to beginning the program.

•    Using emotional check-ins as a way for youth to pause and reflect on how they are feeling.

•    Being an active listener throughout the program and following up with any youth afterward who appear to need additional support by stepping aside to discuss how they are feeling and determine how you can help.

Before each session, try saying something like, “This is a safe space where you are safe to feel and talk about your emotions and ask for help. All feelings are normal and healthy and there is no wrong way to feel. You are always welcome to pass if you are not comfortable sharing in front of the group. I am here to help if you want to talk about anything during or after the program. Does anyone have any questions before we start?”

 Grow in and Model Your Own Social-Emotional Development: Take time to reflect on your own social-emotional skills and identify your strengths and areas for growth by using the Personal Assessment and Reflection – SEL Competencies for School Leaders, Staff and Adults developed by CASEL.^viii Create a plan for addressing your areas for growth and commit to working on it. Youth will look to you as role models for how to talk about and process emotions, as well as how to cope with stressful situations. Be a leader in not only teaching the emotional wellness sessons, but also by modeling it in your everyday interactions.

II. How to Implement SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness

Overview of Resources

SMART Moves consists of a suite of program resources that work together to teach skill building in health decision-making. Each program resource reflects contemporary youth development best practices and incorporates flexible sessions that allow Clubs or Youth Centers to customize learning to the interests and issues of their youth and communities. 

SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness is a 10-session targeted program focused on building three cognitive behavior skills most linked to helping youth avoid negative thought patterns and negative behaviors: self-regulation, impulse control and stress management. It has three units:

1.           Self-Awareness: This unit focuses on youth’s ability to identify their own and others’ emotions; talk about their emotions; and recognize when they’re feeling a strong emotion. This unit gives youth an opportunity to explicitly practice emotional check-ins.

2.           Self-Management: This unit focuses on youth’s ability to practice a self- regulation strategy when they’re feeling a strong emotion. Youth will be introduced to a variety of coping strategies and will build a self-care plan.

3.           Social Application: Youth will apply which coping strategies are a best fit for various contexts and become leaders by teaching their favorite coping strategies to others.

The resulting coping strategies will serve as a foundation that allows youth to apply the health-specific knowledge and skills built and practiced in the health-promotion program SMART Moves: Core.

SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness includes a full progression of sessions for youth in each of three grade groupings: K-2, 3-5 and 6-8. Each session is between 45 and 60 minutes and includes all the components of a high-quality youth development session: a Warm Welcome, a Community Builder, a Main Activity, Reflection, Peer Recognition and an opportunity to reflect.

 Program activities are designed sequentially. The same group of youth should remain together throughout the program and participate in the units in the order they appear in this resource.

Primary Audience

SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness is most impactful if delivered to a group that meets consistently. Consistency allows members to build relationships among the team as they get to know each other, and build their skills by experiencing scaffolded, sequential learning. The team of youth work together to establish a safe space to talk about their emotions and build skills in self-regulation. Because of the vulnerability established as a part of SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness, the program isn’t designed for youth to come in and out of it. Ideally, the group would consist of 10-15 youth.

Program Facilitation Guidance

Format and Key Features:

Each session in SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness follows the same standard format, incorporating best practices in positive youth development. Facilitating the sessions in the format written is highly recommended to implement the program with fidelity. Each component of the session is briefly described below:

•    Background and Preparation – An overview of information needed to implement the activities

      ›  Session Objective – Specific learning goals for the activities

      ›  Time Requirements – Time frame to implement the session (50-60 minutes)

      ›  Materials Needed – All items needed to complete the activity

      ›  Handouts – Handouts and resources needed

      ›  Additional Resources – Links to additional helpful resources

      ›  Health Skills – Attitudes, skills and knowledge developed in the activity

      ›  Social-Emotional Skills – Skills needed for success in life

      ›  Key Terms – Vocabulary/terms reinforced through the activity

•    Before the Session Welcome and Icebreaker – Brief “getting-ready” experiences for the group

      ›  Warm Welcome – A reminder to connect with each youth before the activity

      ›  Community Builder – a five- to ten-minute icebreaker to engage the group, lay the groundwork for the activity, and create an environment for learning and exploration. The Community Builders are intentionally linked to the objectives of the session, and introduce youth to foundational elements of the content, such as emotional check-ins and opportunities to experience self-regulation strategies. Even if youth already know each other, Community Builders should not be skipped.

•    Main Activity Instructions – Step-by-step instructions to lead youth through the activity

      ›  Activity Preparation – Steps to complete to prepare for the activity

      ›  Introducing Youth to Activity – A few comments to introduce the topic and activity      

      ›  Step-by-Step Directions – Detailed steps to facilitate the activity

•    After the Activity – Helpful guidelines to meaningfully conclude the activity

      ›  Youth Reflection – A three-to-five-minute reflection that helps youth affirm what they’ve learned

      ›  Recognition – A brief activity to allow youth to recognize each other’s support and help. The recognition used in this program is the same in each session. Youth are invited to recognize each other by giving one another either a positive affirmation, encouragement or thankfulness, called a “PET.” This recognition was adapted from Ronda Tousciuk and the youth in her SMART Moves group at the Boys & Girls Club of the Great Lakes Bay Region.

      ›  Closing and Transition – A reminder about closing out the activity and moving on to the next area

 Session Modification

We encourage you to review each session thoroughly prior to facilitating. As you review, you may prefer to modify some of the activities to better include and reflect the cultural identities and learning needs of your youth. For each Main Activity in SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness, you’ll notice either an Alternative Main Activity or an activity variation. These are there to guide you in making high-quality adaptations that still support the learning objectives, but provide for various learning styles, materials on hand or a better match of the dynamics of the group. Alternative activities are completely different ways to teach the session objectives, and activity variations are slight modifications since a different activity wouldn’t be able to teach the same objectives.

In addition, you’ll also find call out boxes labeled, “Adaptation for Inclusion.” These notes call attention to places where you can better reflect the various identities of the youth in your Club or Youth Center. For example, changing names in a scenario, or using photographs of your own youth in materials instead of the resources provided.

Finally, you can integrate career exposure into any SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness sessions by inviting local professionals to speak with your program group about the ways coping strategies show up as a part of their career. This will emphasize the idea that emotional wellness is a lifelong commitment, and that there is community support for well-being. This invited professional guest should be someone who has expertise in the self-regulation topics that youth explored during this program. Some examples include: a school counselor, a therapist or a wellness activity instructor, such as a yoga teacher or a music therapist. 

Use Family and Caregiver Resources

Research shows that family communication about health contributes to youth’s ability to make healthy decisions.^{ix x} BGCA has created supplementary resources for use with family and caregivers. These resources are designed to create additional communication opportunities for families to talk together about the content in the SMART Moves program and invite families to share their values on health and wellness. Each program resource (SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness, SMART: Core and SMART Moves Modules) includes three family and caregiver resources. They are divided into three types:

•    On-Site Experiences: Inviting families into the Club or Youth Center to experience a component of the SMART Moves targeted program and share a discussion with their youth.

•    Discussion Guides: A structured guide for conversation that reviews program content and invites families and youth to discuss their ideas and values about health together.

•    Extension Activities: A structured way for families to engage with the same content that youth experienced in the program, but with their family outside of the Club or Youth Center. Includes suggested discussion topics for families to engage in together. 

Each of the family and caregiver resources is aligned with a particular SMART Moves session and is noted in the facilitator’s guide. We recommend inviting families of youth participating in SMART Moves to a kickoff session at the start of the program to learn ways youth can benefit from using the family and caregiver resources outside of the Club or Youth Center. A sample agenda for a kickoff session is included in SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness as the first family and caregiver resource.

Use the Program Evaluation Resources to Measure Local Impact

This program includes a suite of evaluation resources that will help you measure the impact of the SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness among youth in your Club and Youth Center. The survey tools measure attitudes and skills that can lead to the intended outcomes of the program. Using these evaluation tools will enable you to track the progress of youth toward building skills that support healthy decision-making. The resources include a pre/post test, a follow-up evaluation and retrospective post-test survey. These resources can be found in Appendix B.

Use Calming Music to Guide Session Facilitation

Use calming music when youth enter the program space, during individual activity time, and when youth are transitioning to the next program space. This technique can help refocus youths’ energy and make them feel calm and safe. Calming music sections should be free of words, slow in pace, and may even include nature sounds.

Allow Youth Opportunities to Pass

Emotional Safety is a priority during the SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness sessions. Make sure youth are provided with an opportunity to “pass” or sit out of activities if they are feeling uncomfortable or unwilling to share during a component of the session. Youth who would like to opt out of activities can do this in one of two ways:

•    A quiet zone: Create a quiet space in the program environment that is out of the way of the Main Activity space. Youth should still be able to observe the other youth participating. Provide manipulatives that youth can use to help guide self-regulation. When youth are ready, they can opt back into the program.

•    Leaving the sessions to go to Club-wide self-regulation space: Hopefully, your Club or Youth Center has created a space in which all Club or Youth Center youth can self-regulate with adult supervision. Provide support to youth if they opt to leave the session and make sure they use your Club’s or Youth Center’s routines and expectations for accessing the self- regulation space. 

Use Groupers Intentionally

Using groupers – quick, inclusive ways to divide a large group into smaller groups or teams – is a fundamental youth development practice, as it helps build community among a group of youth. Rather than letting youth work together with friends or others they already know well, the groupers allow youth to be partnered in various new ways, and support teamwork and trust-building for the group at large. While each SMART Moves: Emotional Wellness session includes a grouper, you can find alternative groupers in BGCA’s YDToolbox app. Download the free app from the Apple Store or Google Play, or access it online at ydtoolbox.goodbarber.com.

Plan a Formal Recognition or Celebration That Reflects Your Youth Culture 

Although this program ends at Session 10, there is an option to facilitate a final recognition and celebration session at the end of the Emotional Wellness program. Use The Journey Continues: A Closing Celebration to plan key elements of your final celebration that incorporate the content of this program, while reflecting specific cultures and traditions used at your Club or Youth Center.

Obtain Parent/Guardian Consent Forms

BGCA recommends that before beginning any of the components of the SMART Moves Suite, you receive parent or guardian permission for youth to participate in the program. Sample consent forms are included in the Appendices.