Creating Healthier Places

Blue Goji

2018 Progress Report

Year Committed: 2016

Length of Commitment: 3 years

Select a Progress Report:

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Committed to create engaging physical activity opportunities for kids to help solve the childhood obesity crisis. Local organizations in California will be identified to pilot the program in low-income areas using donated Blue Goji exercise equipment, tablets and apps. Blue Goji will also partner with community-based organizations in low-income areas to donate resources that will help keep kids active, while providing education on health and wellness.

Verified Results

Implementation Date
June 2018
Reporting Date
July 2018

Commitment Element
Coleman Fung Foundation will provide $3.5m to the University of California, Berkeley for the development of The Fung Followship for Wellness and Technology Innovations, an undergraduate academic curriculum jointly supported by the School of Public Health, College of Engineering and Blue Goji. The two-year program will leverage Blue GojiÕs gamification of health, wellness and learning platform and promote student-led efforts in developing potential solutions to childhood obesity, especially for underserved communities.
Progress To Date

Since August 2016, the Coleman Fung Foundation has provided $2 million to the University of California, Berkeley for the development of the Fung Fellowship for Wellness & Technology Innovations.
Implementation Date
June 2018
Reporting Date
July 2018

Commitment Element
The primary focus will be developing a health, wellness & learning program for pre-K through first grade children.
Progress To Date

The primary focus of the Fung Fellowship for Wellness & Technology Innovations is to improve wellness outcomes for key communities including at-risk youth, seniors, and veterans. During the reporting period, students designed two projects that were focused on developing a health, wellness, and learning program for elementary and middle school-age children. Project Breaktime! aims to increase physical education in public elementary schools through the use of stationary virtual reality fitness bikes in classrooms. VRplayful aims to increase physical activity in afterschool programs by providing active game breaks during afterschool tutoring sessions.
Implementation Date
June 2018
Reporting Date
July 2018

Commitment Element
Community-based organizations will be identified to pilot the learning program in low-income areas around Berkeley and Richmond, CA.
Progress To Date

Students partnered with an elementary school in Union City, California and a middle school Berkeley, California to develop Project Breaktime! and VRplayful. Students also partnered with Lawrence Hall of Science, a public science center in Berkeley, to provide a discovery theater that engaged youth on topics of physical activity and childhood obesity as part of VRplayful.
Implementation Date
June 2018
Reporting Date
July 2018

Commitment Element
Blue Goji and/or the Coleman Fung Foundation will donate all equipment to execute the program exercise equipment and ios/android tablets; and Goji Play apps are free to download
Progress To Date

Blue Goji reported that it donated all equipment from the two student projects to the elementary school in Union City, California and Lawrence Hall of Science.
Implementation Date
June 2018
Reporting Date
July 2018

Commitment Element
Blue Goji will identify the completed project that can have the greatest impact to increase physical activity and fitness; the new game will be introduced to the marketplace under the Blue Goji brand
Progress To Date

Institutional Review Board applications were submitted for both the Project Breaktime! and VRplayful projects. Neither of the projects received approval to be conducted.
Implementation Date
June 2018
Reporting Date
July 2018

Commitment Element
The Fung Fellowship Program is developing partnerships in Richmond, CA to reach low-income/low-socioeconomic youth through community-based organizations to expose children to Blue Goji games and increase their physical activity habits. All equipment needed will be donated by Blue Goji and/or the Coleman Fung Foundation
Progress To Date

One elementary school with 50% of students eligible for free or reduced price school meals was engaged from Union City, California to develop the virtual reality and fitness project, Project Breaktime!
Implementation Date
June 2018
Reporting Date
July 2018

Commitment Element
With support from PHA, a couple of schools in the Flint, MI area will be identified, and possibly selected, as pilot partner schools for a Blue Goji physical activity, health & wellness initiative.
Progress To Date

No schools in Flint, Michigan were identified.

Partner Statement

“Both Blue Goji and the Fellowship teams were unfamiliar with the protective (and restrictive) research protocol at universities when young children are involved. As a result, both teams had to dramatically scale back their original plans and simplify them as observational, feasibility studies on how active game bikes may be deployed in schools. As documented in the final reports, students at both schools were actively engaged with the active VR game bikes and found the experience very positive.

"Due to the protective university research regulations placed on projects when children are involved, in the second year the Fellowship program switched to a different problem – how to provide a balanced, nutritional diet for kids from underserved communities. Thanks to the PHA network, the program was able to connect and partner with Purple Asparagus for this effort. Purple Asparagus, based in Chicago, is a non-profit organization that educates children and communities about healthy eating for the body and environment. With Purple Asparagus’ guidance, Nine Fellowship teams developed program proposals on this design challenge: ‘How might Purple Asparagus use technology with its existing programs to improve children nutrition?’”