Gangfree Life®: LIBERTY Instant Recess®

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit) LAUSD (select only if you have a district-wide partnership) South Bay

Applying a proven solution to a new issue or sector (using an existing model, tool, resource, strategy, etc. for a new purpose)

According to the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services, it recommends that youth ages 6 to 17 engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day. However, more than 2 in 3 California youth (66%) are engaged in sports or activity. And a majority of youth are less active, including 10% of youths who are “never” active. The low rates of engagement in regular physical activity may be connected to the fact that slightly less than 2-in-5 youth (39%) have P.E. every day at school.
Equity gaps exist across different groups defined by race/ethnicity and gender, with females and Latino youth being the least active. In California, females are less frequently engaged in active play, movement, or physical activities compared to males, 2 in 5 females (41%) play less than 3 times per week, as compared to less than 1 in 3 males (20%). (LA84 Foundation, 2024 California Play Equity Report).

The LIBERTY Instant Recess® program provides student games and activities that focus on the values of “Equal, Responsible, and True” and offers a means to guide students and staff along a path of respect, collaboration, and leadership, while reducing conflict and engendering fitness of mind, body, and spirit. This program enhance learning supports for students in Literacy and Language, Arts and Physical Fitness, Health, and Nutrition. With the principles of the evidence-based Instant Recess® as a foundation, LIBERTY revolutionizes the concept by adding verbal, culturally sensitive, collaborative, and leadership elements to its core activities. The reason for using Instant Recess® as the foundation is GAP’s long affiliation with UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity (formally the UCLA/RAND Prevention Research Center). GAP staff members have been trained and certified through UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health in the theory and application of Instant Recess®, and it has been widely adopted for use at GAP’s STEP UP! after school program, in our Gangfree Life® curriculum, and in our offices for employees. Incorporating the Institute for Learning’s Principles of Learning based on the National Staff Development Council Standards, Gangfree Life®’s LIBERTY provides a durable platform of innovation and student achievement. Lessons (or sessions) are organized on the five-step model. 

LIBERTY Instant Recess® program goal is to transform the students, and school community to improve health and play equity in Los Angeles County. This will also assist the County of Los Angeles in its goals to address serving its most highest needs communities with enrichment opportunities to address health inequities. The physical activity comes in the form of Instant Recess®-style core activity routines which use music and movement to increase activity levels. These activities are designed to reduce unwanted negative characteristics and create desired characteristics. The activities are inclusive and structured and can be offered in schools, offices, workplaces and parks for all ages and disabilities, for the benefit of all the youths and families of Los Angeles County.