The Conmigo project is working with families from Chula Vista and elsewhere to improve their health, communication skills
By Tammy Murga San Diego Union-Tribune
Iraida Juarez and her daughter Angela Vergara, 12, sat on the far end of the bleachers inside the Border View Family YMCA gymnasium on a recent afternoon.
They were the quieter pair among a group of 10 mothers and daughters who occupied the seating area when trying on new running shoes they had all been gifted.
Juarez and Vergara kept to themselves at first. They giggled in the corner as they laced up, noticing Juarez got pink shoes with black accents and her daughter an inverse of the same colors. Once set, they tapped each other’s shoes and dangled their legs like two kids on a swing set.
It was a subtle, yet tender bonding moment between them that has become more frequent since joining a pilot program co-led by San Diego State University and YMCA, Juarez said.
“We’ve been making more time to spend together, especially because life is moving so fast and we tend to push aside things like bonding with our daughters,” Juarez said. “I have three older sons, so it’s been really important to dedicate time with her.”
Getting started was a bit of a challenge, the mother said. She needed to free up the time and spark interest in her pre-teen.
The Conmigo Project has Helped
It’s a 12-week program out of the SDSU Research Foundation designed to help Latina mothers and pre-adolescent daughters build strong and healthy relationships by partaking in fitness, communication skills training and discussions around body image, and mental health and puberty.
“Once girls hit adolescence, data shows that girls’ self-esteem just plummets and depression increases, anxiety increases and physical activity goes down,” said Elva Arredondo, an SDSU psychology professor and researcher leading the program. “Preventative programs like Conmigo can help buffer some of those effects.”
There’s also a reason why the program targets Latinas. “Latina women or minority women with underserved backgrounds tend to engage less in physical activity,” Arredondo added.
Adult Latinos in the U.S. have the highest percentage (32 percent) of physical inactivity among racial/ethnic groups, putting them at higher risk of health issues such as obesity and diabetes, according to a January Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
Inactivity among Latino youth, particularly girls, is no different. Kids often participate in physical activity via sports in school, but CDC data from 2019 showed that fewer than half of Latina high school girls played on a sports team. Only 15 percent of girls met the CDC’s recommendation of at least an hour of daily activity.
Latinas’ health are suffering disproportionally and gaining a clearer understanding of what prevents them from staying active is vital, said Jennifer Schneider, Conmigo’s project manager.
Some barriers they’ve heard from participants include trouble finding time to exercise as many are raising multiple kids, have more than one job or do labor-intensive work. Others don’t have convenient places for fitness or don’t know how to best approach topics about puberty and mental health with their children.
Conmigo launched virtually in 2020 with several groups of four to 10 mother-daughter pairs but program organizers said the idea was always to have it in-person.
SDSU and the YMCA recently partnered to co-lead the program at Border View Family YMCA, which services communities such as south Chula Vista, Nestor and San Ysidro, and at their City Heights-based Copley-Price site. Participants at those locations live within a short walk or driving distance.
“We and the university are very committed to dealing with and attacking the social determinants of health and creating equity when it comes to health and making sure that all of our communities … have programs like this to be able to be their best selves,” said Laura Humphreys, executive director of the YMCA’s South County branch.
The mothers and daughters meeting at Border View have two more weeks left to complete the program, but they don’t want it to end, said Tania Ramirez, who is participating with her three daughters.
“I’ve noticed changes in my girls already. They’re showing interest in wanting to take better care of their health,” she said, adding that they have most enjoyed the varied group exercise classes.
For Vergara and her mother, they have found a new passion: hiking. They said they plan to wear out their new running shoes, given to all participants as part of the program, at local hiking areas.
The hope is to continue running Conmigo “so that more families have an opportunity to participate,” said Schneider. The next steps include applying for long-term funding and working with the YMCA or other agencies that could potentially take on daily operations.