When Georgia children and youth lead the way, change happens
A message from the President & CEO
Preparing to mark HealthMPowers’ 25th anniversary in the year 2025 prompted the development of our most ambitious strategic plan to date, Aspiration 2025. What I am most proud of in completing the plan is that our work now centers youth voice and leadership, health equity, and data-driven impact. It reflects our deepened commitment to empowering communities and amplifying the voices of those we serve. It also underscores our belief that young people are not just beneficiaries of our work—they are leaders in shaping it. We discovered that if we build knowledge and leadership capacity in young people and their champions, then they will lead and inspire change in health behaviors so that Georgia’s youth can realize their full potential. We made a big bet that investing more intentionally in youth leadership would accelerate our impact, and by all accounts, the bet has paid off!
"Little did we know how important this new strategic direction would be."
As we closed this fiscal year, we found ourselves facing a steep cliff with the elimination of core federal funding. Our team’s resilience over the last few months has been extraordinary. We are recalibrating. We are shifting our program and service delivery model to meet the moment, as well as think sustainably and creatively.
"We are leaning in to hope."
Our youth are empowered to fill in the gaps, and they have (literally) jumped up to the challenge. The youth we serve were a part of every success this year, and will continue to be in the future. With a stronger foundation built out of the ambitious direction of our strategic plan, we realized that we have been preparing for this moment for years. While the landscape has changed dramatically and difficult decisions must be made, our mission to champion healthy habits and transform environments where children live, learn, and play remains steadfast.
HealthMPowers is poised to evolve and live on for at least another 25 years, and we are incredibly proud that Georgia’s youth are leading the way.
Sincerely,
Jennifer L. Owens
President & CEO
By the Numbers
25 years and counting
Any nonprofit that has sustained the past 25 years has plenty of reason to celebrate. At HealthMPowers, we capitalized on the special milestone to launch 25 Million Minutes, a statewide initiative to mobilize Georgia’s youth and empower them to work with their schools, early care sites, afterschool programs, and community organizations to encourage children to be active. In partnership with the American Heart Association and NFL Play 60, our goal is for young people across Georgia to collectively achieve 25 million minutes of physical activity in 2025, helping to establish lifelong habits and lay the foundation for more movement in youth programs.
"Halfway through 2025, we had already racked up 14 million minutes logged by more than 500 people, schools, and early care centers."
See news media coverage of the campaign
This past summer, HealthMPowers facilitated a Youth Summit where we brought together more than 30 youth leaders from 20 counties across Georgia. Two days of facilitated discussions led by youth for youth were both fun and inspirational. Students had opportunities to network, participate in the “Learners to Leaders” training modules, and share creative ideas for how to improve health among youth in Georgia. The impact was profound.
"We are agents of change, and with good planning and teamwork, everything is achievable."
- Youth Summit Participant
HealthMPowers’ Youth Advisory Board (YAB) this year received advocacy training from Gwinnett United in Drug Education and Youth Mental Health First Aid certification through a partnership with the Center of Excellence for Children’s Behavioral Health at the Georgia Health Policy Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Equipped with these skills, they will be active in their communities, driving efforts to improve the well-being of Georgia’s youth. Additionally, HealthMPowers staff received the Youth Mental Health First Aid Certifications to be more effective partners in these spaces where children live, learn and play.
Looking to the upcoming year, we grew YAB – electing the largest incoming cohort to date. The board, in particular, truly shows how having a voice that contributes to tangible changes while learning leadership skills creates an incredibly strong sense of confidence, all while serving the organization in meaningful ways. As a testament to the success of YAB, outgoing co-chair Alvaro Saldarriaga Arcila was honored by the Georgia Afterschool & Youth Development Awards as the 2025 Rising Star! The award recognizes outstanding youth who have been active leaders in their afterschool or youth development programs.
For girls, by girls
Our pilot program Girls Empowering Movement – or GEM – has developed into a true GEM community of girls and adult allies through an interactive platform, expanded resources, and new events. We developed a white paper that was accepted by the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, reinforcing GEM’s value as a replicable model. The high school senior and co-chair of this year’s HealthMPowers Youth Advisory Board is one of the girls who created GEM when she was in 7th grade. Pratima Yellayi used her voice to show what can be possible for young girls with a little encouragement and a lot of community. She and GEM were featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, morning news shows and the peer-reviewed Human Kinetics Journal promoting youth health and leadership. Because of all this and more, HealthMPowers secured funding to turn the pilot into a sustainable program and is experimenting with a fee-for-service model to expand reach.
Pratima Yellayi
Learning to eat healthy – the earlier the better
A focus on toddlers and young children is a proven strategy to build healthy, lifelong habits. We’ve been inspired in the last year by partners such as early care center owner Diana Valdivieso who is creating a healthy environment and learning experience, and having an impact outside the school day by turning her students on to rice bowls!
“I loved working in the food pantry because I got to get out of class and actually be in charge of something. I loved being in charge of all the bags. I loved being needed.”
- Murray County Schools Student
Listen as Diana Valdivieso shares her inspiring approach to promoting healthy habits
In Murray County, students at four elementary schools were empowered to “rescue” uneaten food from school meals to alleviate childhood food insecurity and reduce school food waste. HealthMPowers works closely with the school health teams and trained student health advocates to provide support, including resources, training, technical assistance and implementation of food pantries set up at the schools. The program actively involves students in the process and strengthens youth leadership opportunities by letting them take ownership of inspecting the food, stocking and storing food in the pantry, filling up the thermal bags to go home with families, and delivering the bags to the buses. Murray county is just one example of where some of the more than 2000 students trained in 2025 by HealthMPowers are leading the way towards healthy habits.
Watch scenes from the day and hear about the gardens’ impact.
Another way HealthMPowers marked its 25th anniversary was a work day to complete two garden spaces at Bethune Middle School, a school that has hosted nearly all of HealthMPowers recent programs impacting more than 3,600 of its students and is one of our strongest partners in the K-12 work. Both gardens are designed to welcome and serve all students. One will offer enhanced accessibility features to ensure students with disabilities can fully participate, while the other will serve as a vibrant learning space integrated across nearly all subjects.
Every kid has abilities
In FY 2025 we teamed up with BlazeSports America, an organization known for empowering youth and veterans through adaptive sports, to enhance our physical activity supplies for inclusivity. Since the Jump Rope Kit had been an amazing resource that’s previously been used by HealthMPowers, the team decided to modify it to make it accessible for students of all abilities, while also enhancing it with a mix of shape and size illustrations to better reflect all the diverse communities HealthMPowers serves.
Through a series of brainstorming sessions, we developed solutions for students with disabilities, such as individuals using wheelchairs or who have vestibular and balance issues that may arise with conditions such as cerebral palsy. One key adaptation was to invest in adding cordless jump ropes to the kit for students who don’t have the ability to jump, or by younger students who need to practice turning the rope before adding in the jumping component.
In adapting different resources for different audiences, we are able to deliver more relevant HealthMPowers physical activity services across all programs for children and youth of all abilities to help more program participants move daily.
Acting like kids
Team members delivered success data in a unique, fun way.
Working to intentionally center youth in our work inspired us to take what is so common yet critical to the sustainability of any nonprofit – performance data – and share it through the eyes of the young people we serve. Datapalooza is more than a creative presentation of metrics from the year, it was a moment of the year that allowed us to act like kids and celebrate why we do this work.
At the same time, we’re proud of the metrics! What you’ll see and hear in the Datapalooza video is a small snippet of not only program successes, but a great sample of how HealthMPowers has expanded our data and evaluation systems to ensure that every program we deliver is backed by evidence and measurable outcomes. These enhancements have strengthened our ability to demonstrate impact, inform strategy, and continuously improve.
stewardship
Allocation of Funds
Awarded to HealthMPowers in 2025
FY25 Board of Directors
Board Chairman
Kirk Diamond
Cushman & Wakefield
Executive Managing Director
Vice Chair
Jasmine Hoffman
Emory University
Associate Vice President, Communications & Marketing
Treasurer
Crystal Lazarus
Goodwill of North Georgia
Senior Director of Planning & Strategy
Corporate Secretary
Shana Scott
American Heart Association
VP of Community Impact
Dr. Hari Athreya
Crossover Health
Medical Director
Marcus Foster
Emory Clinic
Director of Finance
Gerry Halphen
Thrive Performance
CEO
Laura Kurlander-Nagel
Johnson Kurlander Legal Group
Partner
Denys Lu
Emory University
Assistant Director, IT Audit
Nicole Mosley
McClure Health Science High School
Principal
Keith Perkey
Haskell
Vice President
Rohan Rajpurohit
Youth Board Member
Sonali Rao
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Supply Chain Project Manager
Yolanda Reid-Wheeler
Henry County Public Schools
Intervention Specialist
Alvaro Saldarriaga Arcila
Youth Board Co-Chair
Pratima Yellayi
Youth Board Co-Chair
Nafesa Walters-Smith
UnitedHealth Group
Vice President Public Sector & Government Markets
FY25 Advisory Council
Founders
Andy Isakson
Isakson Living
President
Mary Johnson
SBBOS, LLC
Owner
Former Board Members
Amanda Adams
Citrin Cooperman
Partner
Afshan Ali
Jackson & Coker
Division Vice President
Dr. Diane Allensworth
Retired
Dr. Louis Battey Jr.
Piedmont Heart Institute
Cardiologist
Jason Bernstein
Barnes & Thornburg
Partner
Mike Callahan
Aprio, LLP
COO/CFO
Kelly Combs
Anthem
Former Executive Director
Justin Grimsley
Chick-Fil-A
Principal Program Lead
Jana Thomas
Humana
Vice President
Todd Garlitz
Genome Medical
Vice President of Marketing
Former Staff
Christi Kay
Former HealthMPowers CEO
Youth Advisory Board
Ninth Grade
Malak Aldoum
Jonathan (Jon) Bell
Alexis Walker
Eleventh Grade
Pratima Yellayi
Claire Collins
Ayshiah Frazier
Carlie Gabriel
Aria Reddy
Twelfth Grade
Álvaro Saldarriaga Arcila
Camila Isaza
Lillian (Lily) Jacobs
Funding Partners
HealthMPowers is a Georgia 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the environments where children live, learn, and play. Since its founding in 1999, HealthMPowers has championed healthy habits by integrating nutrition education, physical activity, and—more recently—mental wellness strategies into early care settings, K-12 schools, after-school programs, and other youth-centered communities across the state. With a mission to ensure all Georgia children are nourished and active, HealthMPowers has reached a half a million children in more than 1,300 sites across the state.