Community Park-Based Programs for Health Promotion: The Fit2Lead Prospective Cohort Study (F2L)

September 3, 2025 updated by: Duke University
The Fit2Lead prospective cohort study examines the effects of a park-based youth mental health and resilience afterschool program on youth participant mental health, resilience, physical fitness, and violence prevention outcomes. Duke will perform a secondary analysis of the data collected as part of the Fit2Lead prospective cohort study run by Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The Fit2Lead prospective cohort study examines the effects of a park-based youth mental health and resilience afterschool program on youth physical and mental health and resilience, communication, and problem-solving skills training for underserved youth aged 12 to 17 years through an interdisciplinary collaboration among Miami-Dade Department of Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (MDPROS) Miami-Dade County (MDC) Juvenile Services Department, MDC Public Schools, MDC Police Department, University of Miami, Florida International University, and other community-based partners.

Fit2Lead consists of 2 phases initiated simultaneously in 2015. For youth aged 12 to 14 years, Fit2Lead is offered after school Monday through Friday from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm at 12 MDC parks for participants in under resourced neighborhoods and based on area-level youth crime and neighborhood poverty. Fit2Lead runs September through June at no charge, and provides daily academic support, sports and recreation, meditation, stress resilience, and life skills-focused workshops. Each park serves anywhere from 2 to 9 feeder schools within these neighborhoods (a target population of 34 000 youth residents aged 12-17 years), and transportation from schools to parks is provided at no cost within a 3-mile radius of a program park. Fit2Lead participants can also enroll in the MDPROS youth summer camp at no charge.

Phase II of Fit2Lead is for youth aged 15 to 17 years and entails a year-round paid internship and 3-hour weekly enrichment, resilience, and life skills workshops. Daily entry-level part-time interns receive $9 per hour (approximately 500 total paid hours per year; total salary approximately $4000 per participant, per year). Work assignments support MDPROS operations and recreation staff. Interns rotate every 8 weeks for exposure to different job opportunities, supervisors, and mentors. Phase 1 participants who reach age 15 years and are awaiting an internship placement can remain in phase 1 until a position opens or can be transferred to another internship program within the MDPROS.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

1000

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Florida
      • Miami, Florida, United States, 33128
        • Recruiting
        • Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Probability Sample

Study Population

Fit2Lead is offered in areas composed of 48% male youths, 60% Hispanic persons, 29% non-Hispanic Black persons, 33% single-parent households, and 33% of residents living below the federal poverty threshold as defined by the American Community Survey. Thirty-three percent of families are single-parent households, and 33% of residents are living in poverty in zip codes where Fit2Lead is offered.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All participants enrolled in the Miami-Dade Fit2Lead study will be included in this secondary analysis
  • Aged 12-17 years, residing in Miami-Dade County

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Anyone not enrolled in the Miami-Dade Fit2Lead study will be excluded from this secondary analysis
  • Aged <12 or >17 years, not residing in Miami-Dade County, cannot read and speak in English

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Fit2 Lead Cohort 1-2
Fit2Lead runs September through June at no charge, and provides daily academic support, sports and recreation, meditation, stress resilience, and life skills-focused workshops. Participants who reach age 15 years and are awaiting an internship placement can remain in phase 1 until a position opens or can be transferred to another internship program within the MDPROS.
Behavioral: Fit2Lead Group 1-2

Each park serves anywhere from 2 to 9 feeder schools within these neighborhoods (a target population of 34 000 youth residents aged 12-17 years), and transportation from schools to parks is provided at no cost within a 3-mile radius of a program park. Fit2Lead participants can also enroll in the MDPROS youth summer camp at no charge.

Work assignments support MDPROS operations and recreation staff. Interns in Phase II rotate every 8 weeks for exposure to different job opportunities, supervisors, and mentors.

Duke is conducting a secondary data analysis on data collected as part of the Fit2Lead study.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Weight
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Blood Pressure
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in number of push-ups
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in number of sit-ups
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Career and Education Planning survey
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in College and Career Readiness survey
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Kidscreen-27
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
The Kidscreen-27 score range is 27-135. A higher score indicates more positive well-being.
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7)
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
The GAD-7 has a score range 0-21. Higher score indicates higher anxiety levels.
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8)
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
The PHQ-8 has a score range 0-24. Higher score indicates higher depression levels.
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) score
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Among boys, for ages 10-17, the healthy fitness range is 23-61 laps for age 10, 23-72 laps for age 11, 32-72 laps for age 12, and 41-83 laps for ages 13 and up; Among girls, for ages 10-17, the healthy fitness range is 7-41 laps for age 10, 15-41 laps for ages 11 and 12, and 23-51 laps for ages 13 and up. A higher score indicates greater aerobic capacity.
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS)
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
The Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) has a total score range of 0-32. Higher score indicates more positive sense of community.
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Sociopolitical Control Scale for Youth (SCPS-Y; Leadership subscale)
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
The SCPS-Y has a range 1-6. Higher scores indicate higher policy control, leadership competence, sense of community, ethnic identity, and social support.
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Self-efficacy for teen conflict (SE-TCS)
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Possible range for the SE-TCS is 5 to 25' with higher scores indicating more confidence
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Casey Life Skills Assessment
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
Casey Life Skills Assessment (CLSA) scores are on a scale of 1-5, with 5 representing the highest level of strength
Baseline, 12-72 months
Change in Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)
Time Frame: Baseline, 12-72 months
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) has a score range of 0 to 40, with higher scores indicating greater perceived stress.
Baseline, 12-72 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Duke University

Collaborators

The Children's Trust, Miami FL
Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Emily D'Agostino, Duke University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 17, 2016

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 17, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 17, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 11, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 17, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

September 19, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

September 10, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 3, 2025

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro00105669_2

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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