Mission
To develop a country of active and healthy children and youth by increasing access to quality physical education solutions by engaging them in a fun and interactive way.
About PE4life
PE4life is a national non-profit organization dedicated to developing a country of active and healthy children and youth by increasing access to quality physical education. PE4life promotes making physical activity fun and interactive to engage all students. PE4life partners with community, business, and school leaders to facilitate systemic change in the perception and delivery of physical education with the desire to improve the health and wellness of children through quality physical education. PE4life offers professional development and support to educators and administrators who desire to create positive change in their schools and communities.
Programs incorporating PE4life’s Core Principles employ today’s best practices in physical education to inspire and educate all students about the fundamental importance of lifetime physical activity and fitness. PE4life has worked successfully in schools with diverse student populations in a variety of settings. Regardless of the environment, PE4life has been able to support those individuals and groups who wish to be a catalyst for positive change.
PE4life has trained physical education professionals and administrators from 40 states and 9 countries around the world.
The six PE4life Academy Training Centers represent a broad spectrum of students and PE programs. Centers are located in Kansas City, MO; Grundy Center, IA; Naperville, IL; Indianapolis, IN; Titusville, PA; and Rogers, AR. PE4life has also added Model Sites in regions of expansion to further impact schools and allow the observation of PE4life’s Core Principles in action.
What Makes Us Unique?
PE4life supports getting kids active and healthy by engaging them through fun and interaction. We invite implementation of technology into Physical Education classrooms by encouraging the use of interactive gaming, heart rate monitors, pedometers and other feedback tools.
Enabling a student to monitor their heart rate allows them to observe the direct effect exercise has on the body. Whether they are using interactive gaming equipment or participating in sports, fitness or adventure activities, students learn how to maintain the appropriate intensity of activity to enhance their health. PE4life supports physical educators and connects them to appropriate resources to enhance the delivery and results of their program.
Assessment is a key component to a successful program. PE4life advocates for the incorporation of assessment tools, which can help students and teachers track progress made towards achieving fitness goals. By using innovation and technology to evaluate, plan and monitor a student’s progress, programs incorporating PE4life’s Core Principles are having a positive impact on the health of children.
PE4life understands the importance of nutrition. For this reason, we have partnered with the American Dietetic Association Foundation (ADAF) and the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition Foundation (ACFN Foundation) to form the Healthy Schools Partnership (HSP). Building upon an already successful program incorporating PE4life’s Core Principles, the HSP is an innovative school-based program designed to integrate nutrition education into physical education. The HSP teams a Registered Dietitian nutrition coach with the PE4life teacher, showing children that the calories they eat and the calories they expend must be in balance. HSP helps to create a wellness culture throughout the school by teaching how activity and diet matters to the wellness of the whole person.
Read PE4life testimonials.
PE4life’s Core Principles
We believe PE should:
- Be directed to all students, not just the athletically inclined
- Offer a variety of fitness, sport, leisure and adventure activities
- Provide a safe and encouraging learning environment
- Utilize individual assessments
- Incorporate current technology
- Extend beyond the walls of the gymnasium
- Ideally, be offered to every child every day
PE4life has a proven record of reversing the trend in this country of inactivity by increasing physical education, which has been proven to impact students’ ability to learn. - Tom Harkin, U.S. Senator