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FLIPANY’s Earn-A-Bike
2016 Program Review & Evaluation
Tiffany A. Albury, B.A, EMT
Master of Public Health Candidate 2016
Nova Southeastern University
Florida Introduces Physical Activity & Nutrition to Youth (FLIPANY)
Preceptor: Tina Hudson, MPH, CHES, CCHW
(Interim Reviewer: Chelsea Wilkes, Volunteer & Community Outreach Manager)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………………... 3
INTRODUCTION……………………………………..…………………………………………….. .3
PROGRAM BENEFITS………………………………….…………………………………………..6
METHODS…………………………………………………..……………………….………………..7
RESULTS……………………………………………………....………………………………….….. 7
DISCUSSION………………………………………………..……………………………………….. 8
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………………..9
WEBSITES ACCESSED…………………………………………………………………………….. 9
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE APPENDICES AREATTACHEDAS SEPARATE DOCUMENTS.

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ABSTRACT
Background. Florida Introduces Physical Activity and Nutrition to Youth, also known as FLIPANY,is a
501 c (3) non-profit organization that has been serving the South Florida area for over 10 years. With its
innovative programming and initiatives FLIPANY serves both youth and families, including seniors. It
collaborates with multiple community centers,parks, and other social services agencies. The program that
was reviewed for this project was Earn-A-Bike (EAB). Earn-A-Bike is currently improving the lives of
children in the Broward County area with hopes to expand its program to both the Miami-Dade and Palm
Beach area. Methods. Working with FLIPANY and its program as a satellite, it was best practice to utilize
the information that could be readily accessed on the Internet. The many websites and documents
researched helped with the task of locating and reviewing similar bike programs, biking organizations and
other afterschool programs in Florida and nationwide funding grants that could assist the program.
Results. Proper edits and changes of policies and protocol manuals were updated for the EAB program.
Letters were written as potential drafts for submission to generate funding opportunities to further support
the program in the future. An action logic plan was mapped out stating what goals and outcomes should
be completed within the next two years. Conclusion.Consistent revision and edit of Earn-A-Bike will
encourage proper management of the program in order to fund and sustain the initiative as a part of the
FLIPANY organization. It is important that team meetings about the programs that are current in
FLIPANY are fulfilling their goals. These reviews would provide constructive criticism, create new ideas,
and facilitate program changes as necessary.
INTRODUCTION
Florida Introduces Physical Activity and Nutrition to Youth, also known as FLIPANY,is a 501 c (3) non-
profit organization that has been serving the South Florida area for over 10 years. Their mission is to
empower youth and their families through physical activity and nutrition education programs while
raising awareness and creating policies for a healthier community. With its innovative programming and
initiatives FLIPANY serves both the youth and their families. It collaborates heavily with multiple
community centers,parks, and other social services agencies in the Broward county area. FLIPANY
continues to fight childhood obesity and hunger by focusing on healthy food preparation, food security,
physical education and work-site wellness. Not only are they focused on physical activity, but also on the
overall development of their participants.
The program that was reviewed for this project was Earn-A-Bike (EAB). Earn A Bike is a hands-on
learning program for youth ages 10-17. Over the course of 8 sessions, participants learn the basics of bike
repair and maintenance and safe riding practices that should be observed. Upon completion of the
appropriate number of sessions, participants have the opportunity to not only refurbish a used bike but
also keep the bike they’ve repaired, in addition to receiving a new helmet and bike lock. However,EAB
is not only about earning a bike. It is also about giving the participants a fun and different way to develop
their social, emotional, and overall life skills starting from a young age. The program objectives for EAB
are as follows: (1) Youth will gain hands-on experience working with a bike mechanic to rebuild a bike.
(2) Increase students’ knowledge of bike safety and basic laws of riding. (3) Youth will participate in
team building and leadership activities related to a bike. (4) Youth will build a bike and maintain the bike
for transportation to school, work or for exercise. With each session, participants are taught
developmental concepts of leadership, teamwork and empathy as well as learning more about their bike.
An overview of the topics discussed in each session is seen below in Figure 1.

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FLIPANY,along with other out-of-school or afterschool programs, provide many children in the South
Florida area an opportunity to learn and develop in a safe environment. Many children can no longer play
outdoors in part due to the danger and in part because the historic ‘web of sociability’ has disappeared in
many neighborhoods with adults less willing or able to serve a collective parenting function around
children’s public activity (Halpern, 2002). Parents are preoccupied with family survival or their own
unmet needs and as a result leave their children’s daily lives and well being unmonitored unable to
provide much needed support (Halpern, 2002). In Florida there are currently 541,481 (19%) school-age
children from K-12 who are alone and unsupervised during the afterschool hours (Afterschool Alliance,
2016).
Figure 2. The Afterschool Alliance’s
‘Fight Crime: Invest in Kids’ (2003)
infogram reinforcing the message of
the dangers of unsupervised
afterschool hours and how many
children are left alone from 3 to 6 P.M.
Figure 1. FLIPANY’s Earn-A-Bike 8-weeksession program matrix. This figure was retrieved June 20th, 2016 from the FLIPANY
website located at www.flipany.org.

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Research has shown that unsupervised hours have lead children to commit crimes or become victims of
crimes, which in turn impacts their development into adulthood. Unsupervised afterschoolhours have
also been found to be the most common time for adolescent sexual intercourse, more likely to engage in
substance abuse and be subjected to negative peer pressure (Durlak, 2007). Reviewing research data and
results from the most recent Middle School Health Behavior Survey (MSHBS) and Youth Risk Behavior
Survey (YRBS) it is evident that the critical years of development coincide with what type of behaviors
children engage in. For example, in Figure 3 from the YRBS,a survey administered to high school
students in Florida, in 2013 approximately 323,100 students (44.3%) admitted that they had ever had
sexual intercourse. In Figure 4 from the same survey, among the approximate 222,300 students who had
sexual intercourse during the past three months, approximately 50,500 students (22.8%) drank alcohol or
used drugs before having sexual intercourse. In the MSHBS, Figure 5 shows the percentage of students
who have admitted to carrying a weapon, including a gun, knife and/or club. The complete summary of
these reports can be found as reports on the Florida Department of Health website (The website is listed
under references).
Figure 3. Results from the 2013 Florida YouthRiskBehavior Surveyindicating how manystudents who respondedas to ever havingsexual
intercourse. Retrieved from: http://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-and-data/survey-data/youth-risk-behavior-survey/index.html
Figure 4. Results from the 2013 Florida YouthRiskBehavior Surveyindicating how manystudents who respondedas to having usedalcohol or
drugs before their last sexual intercourse. Retrievedfrom: http://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-and-data/survey-data/youth-risk-behavior-
survey/index.html

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There is mounting evidence that where and how youth spend their time outside of normal school hours
has implications for their development (Durlak, 2007). Following home and school, afterschoolprograms
are coming to be a third critical development setting, especially for low- and middle-income children
(Halpern, 2002). Educators, policy makers, and funders increasingly argue that structured after-school
activities can provide youth with valuable support for development (Kahne, et. al, 2001). However,the
majority of research has focused solely on afterschool programs that rely on a child’s academic progress
and how the program has assisted in the child’s achievements. Afterschool programs should be focused
on both youth development as well as academic success. Protective factors such as forming caring and
supportive relationships that provide motivation, high expectations, help with problems, and mentoring
are all important for youth development (Kahne, et. al, 2001). Parents agree that children develop strong
social skills, make better decisions, and are excited about learning (Afterschool Alliance, 2016, America
After 3PM, http:// afterschoolalliance.org/AA3PM).
PROGRAM BENEFITS
Earn-A-Bike is currently improving the lives of children in the Broward County area with hopes to
expand its program to both the Miami-Dade and Palm Beach area. EAB has provided this program to over
300 middle and high school students over the past years and has successfully made an impact in their
lives. Participants come to the program ready and engaged, of course mostly interested in receiving a free
bike, yet leave the program feeling more confident than when they entered. EAB builds resilience, self-
confidence and self-esteem all while teaching a very useful hands-on skill. As an effective afterschool
program, EAB mirrors many of the benefits that the literature has discussed. A safe environment,
improvements in feelings and attitudes, and the ability to effectively communicate have all been positive
factors that have reinforced students’ success in the program. However,the challenges faced with EAB
range from gaining participation, soliciting funds, and providing meaningful measurable outcomes.
FLIPANY’s programs are primarily funded by grants and rely heavily on these funds to continue their
EAB program.
Figure 5. Results from the 2013 Florida Middle School Health Behavior Surveyindicating howmanystudents whorespondedas to
ever carried a weapon(such as a gun, knife or club)inthe past 30 days. Retrievedfrom: http://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-
and-data/survey-data/middle-school-health-behavior-survey/

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Based on FLIPANY’s mission to ‘empower youth’ and ‘create policies for a healthier community’ my
purpose for this project was to evaluate and review the EAB curriculum to ensure that the activities and
operations in place were effective towards the mission of the organization. With the presentation of
meaningful evaluations and outcomes, policy-makers are encouraged to discuss the need for changes in
the community. They are able to recognize the need for afterschool programming such as EAB in order to
help the youth of the community develop to become well-abiding citizens. In the generaloutlook of the
community, they are also able to assist in minimizing violence, gang activity and overall crime. Children
will be able to ride their bikes safely to and from schools—granted that streets,sidewalks, and
surrounding environments such as parks are safe to use. Safe access to these places will also foster
physical activity when using their bikes, therefore helping to reduce the rates of childhood obesity.
Currently, FLIPANY along with community partners such as TOUCH and the Broward Regional Health
Planning Council have already implemented several nutrition programs to eliminate this statistic. Yet,
programs such as EAB are lacking the funding required to assist even more in the community’s efforts.
METHODS
Before working with any of the materials of the program that was provided, a project work plan was
developed to map out what tasks were going to be completed in order to assist in the efforts of Earn-A-
Bike. Creation of the work plan was completed with the help of the online tool: Team Gantt, in order to
help organize tasks and make set deadlines. The majority of my work and research to be conducted dealt
with EAB’s policies and operations manual. I received access to these files via an online database called
Box. Box is a website where files can be easily uploaded and changed if necessary and is used as a home
base for all of the EAB program files. Using the past information from the program as well as looking at
previous operation and facilitator manuals I compared what EAB already had in place and made the
necessary corrections and/or changes.
Working with FLIPANY and its program as a satellite, it was best practice to utilize the information that
could be readily accessed on the Internet. The many websites and documents researched helped with the
task of locating and reviewing similar bike programs, biking organizations and other afterschool programs
in Florida and nationwide funding grants that could assist the program. Methods of research in order to
have proper background literature of peer-reviewed journals were completed via access to online journal
databases such as EBSCOhost,JSTOR, and Google Scholar. Finally, utilizing online toolkits from the
University of Kansas website,helped with writing the basis of an award-winning grant. Other online tools
such as npguides.org and the grantdoctor.com provided many helpful tools to help build the grant as well.
Data sets and research summaries were accessed from the Florida Department of Health website, the CDC
website and other public afterschoolwebsites including Youth.gov and the Afterschool Alliance.
RESULTS
The Earn-A-Bike operational manual and facilitator’s guide was reviewed to correct any grammatical
errors, edit chart displays, and program policies that needed to be appropriately updated. The Program
Coordinator and Health Education Specialist who was responsible specifically for the EAB program
managed the approval of these changes. Community partnerships and online bike resources were
compiled into a spreadsheet that could be easily accessed by the program to continually update in the
future in order to seek out partnerships and funding opportunities. A general letter of inquiry that can be
used as outreach for partnerships was also created as wellas a basic outline of information that can be

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used for grant applications. Depending on the specifics of the grant that EAB will apply for, the outline
can be used as a base for background literature and research. Severalpeer-reviewed journals used as a
reference for the project were uploaded to the Box database that can be referred to and built upon if
necessary. Lastly, an action logic plan was created to properly breakdown a suggested timeline for EAB’s
future operations and plans. All of these forms can be found in the Appendix at the end of this
manuscript.
CONCLUSION
Consistent revision and edit of Earn-A-Bike will encourage proper management of the program in order
to fund and sustain the initiative as a part of the FLIPANY organization. It is important that team
meetings about the programs that are current in FLIPANY are fulfilling their goals. These reviews would
provide constructive criticism, create new ideas,and facilitate program changes as necessary.
The program’s public health competencies that were demonstrated as a part of the project were to identify
and discuss strategies for collaboration and partnership among organizations focused on public health
goals; describe and discuss the organization, financing, delivery, maintenance and administration of
health service programs; evaluate a public health program or initiative, taking into account legal,
economic, financing and effectiveness parameters; and to demonstrate understanding of the three core
functions of public health (assessment,policy development, assurance).
The revision of these policies and procedures will ensure that the EAB program is ran at the best level.
Ensuring that the information can be properly understood would foster future plans of longevity and
expansion. With greater knowledge of the program, FLIPANY will be able to receive more funding,
which will lead to more participants being enrolled and hopefully more of the youth on bikes being
physically active in the Broward community. Minor steps of improvement will help EAB grow and
develop into a program that could expand in all areas of South Florida.
As EAB develops, the aim would be to generate policy changes that benefit the children of the
community. This means that neighborhoods are safe and properly identified with “biking” signage, roads
are repaired for safe riding, bike paths are constructed to and from schools, and parks are kept clean and
safe. Federalfunding for afterschool programs are limited and the need far exceeds what is available.
Currently, academic test scores,standardized grading systems, and set benchmarks are just a few of the
categories that government policy makers focus on when trying to decide where the money should be put.
Academic improvement afterschool programs are the main focus now, but social and developmental skill
building should be as well. Students in high quality afterschool programs have better attendance; exhibit
better behavior, grades and test scores compared to their non-participating peers (AfterschoolAlliance,
2016).

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REFERENCES
Afterschool Supports Students' Success.Digital image. Afterschoolalliance.org.N.p., n.d. Web.
Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2007). The impact of after-school programs that promote personal and
social skills. Chicago, IL: Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning.
Halpern, Robert. "A Different Kind of Child Development Institution: The History of After-School Programs for
Low-Income Children." Teachers College Record Teachers College Rec 104.2 (2002): 178-211. Web.
Kahne, J., J. Nagaoka, A. Brown, J. O'brien, T. Quinn, and K. Thiede. "Assessing After-SchoolPrograms as
Contexts for Youth Development." Youth & Society 32.4 (2001): 421-46. Web.
Peth-Pierce, Robin. "A Good Beginning: Sending America's Children to School with the Social and Emotional
Competence They Need To Succeed." N.p., 2000. Web. 20 June 2016.
Riggs, Nathaniel R., and Mark T. Greenberg. "After-School Youth Development Programs: A Developmental-
Ecological Model of Current Research." Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev
7.3 (2004): 177-90. Print.
WEBSITES ACCESSED
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/08/02/secrets-successful-afterschool-programs
http://www.hfrp.org/var/hfrp/storage/fckeditor/File/file/OSTissuebrief10_summary.pdf
http://www.hfrp.org/var/hfrp/storage/fckeditor/File/file/OSTissuebrief10_summary.pdf
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/4h/evaluation/documents/EvaluationToolkitJun04.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/results.htm
http://www.floridahealth.gov/statistics-and-data/survey-data/youth-risk-behavior-survey/index.html
http://www.statewideafterschoolnetworks.net/
http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/
http://florida.grantwatch.com/
http://fundsnetservices.com/
http://fundsnetservices.com/
http://youth.gov/