Working with Children to Prevent Breast Cancer in Adults

At the Marin City Library, a group of more than 45 children—kindergarteners to 2nd graders—spread out on the floor in happy chaos, coloring with markers and trying on sleeping masks. Each day of this summer program, as part of their literacy curriculum, they were paired with local high school students to engage with their Healthy Futures activity books, which has ideas for laughter yoga, scavenger hunts in nature, healthy foods, and other ways to “move more, eat healthy, get enough sleep, and feel better.”

These young children were in a Healthy Futures pilot program of Zero Breast Cancer, which is newly part of Commonweal’s Collaborative for Health and Environment. The  activity book, available in English and Spanish, empowers kids ages 5-7 to improve their own health and gives caregivers tools to support healthy behaviors. While the Healthy Futures program focuses on healthy behaviors and does not bring up puberty or breast cancer, its goal is to reduce the risk of early puberty and lifetime breast cancer risk.

The kids in the summer 2023 pilot program—many of them an underserved population in Marin City, California—looked forward to it each day and loved their booklet, according to the summer program teacher, Hope Feldman.

“They loved many of the activities,” Hope said. “They loved the nature scavenger hunt…they walked right up a steep hill! They loved trying different flavors of water. They loved the activities and crafts—and the laughing yoga, laughing all together was really fun.”

Lianna Hartmour, program and communications director for Zero Breast Cancer, points out that healthy behaviors before puberty reduce the likelihood of early puberty in cis-gendered girls, which decreases their lifetime breast cancer risk. When healthy behaviors are maintained while breasts are developing, it reduces lifetime breast cancer risk, too. Although breast cancer is most common in cis-gender women, this program was designed for kids of all genders so that it can be used in mixed-gender groups and because any person can get breast cancer.

The Healthy Futures activity book highlights moving more, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and managing stress—but exposure to harmful chemicals is also a factor in increasing the risk of early puberty and breast cancer later in life.

“The developmental psychologist we consulted advised waiting to talk about chemical exposures with children until they are older,” said Lianna. “But we highly recommend parents and caregivers reduce kids’ exposure to toxic chemicals at the earliest  possible age.”

A variety of resources on Zero Breast Cancer’s website target different populations and ages. Most are available in English and Spanish, with some also in Chinese, Tagalog, and French. Healthy Futures empowers kids ages 5-7 to engage in healthy behaviors, Girls’ New Puberty offers tips for parents and caregivers of girls ages 5-13, and their Generations initiative is targeted at young adults, helping them to make decisions that reduce toxins through pregnancy and beyond.

Their resources for the young populations reach kids in after-school programs (who get zipper pulls for their accomplishments), Girl Scout troops (who get a patch when they complete activities), and social media—a Girl Scout influencer on Pinterest took the Healthy Futures activity book viral in early 2023 and the post continues to direct people to the resource today. More than 5,000 prizes have been requested through the programs, and feedback from parents, caregivers, teachers, and afterschool program leaders has led to updates in the activity book that will reach even more students and
scouts.

Zero Breast Cancer reaches other populations as well, including breast cancer  survivors, with downloadable factsheets, webinars, coaching, and other printed materials.

Lianna said, “Zero Breast Cancer has long prioritized intensive community feedback in nearly all of our material creation and program development in order to ensure what we do is as effective as possible. This rich history of grounding our work in community concerns will be strengthened now that we are a part of the Collaborative for Health and Environment at Commonweal. We are actively gathering input for our latest initiatives, including videos about the impact of toxic chemical exposures and our health and wellness coaching program.”

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Zero Breast Cancer, part of the Collaborative for Health and Environment (CHE), is one the Commonweal programs that do groundbreaking work and offer rich resources in the realm of whole-person cancer care. Others include:

Commonweal Cancer Help Program: cancerhelpprogram.org
Biomonitoring Resource Center: commonwealbiomonitoring.ngo
CancerChoices: cancerchoices.org
Collaborative for Health and the Environment: heathandenvironment.org
Healing Circles Global: healingcirclesglobal.org
SafetyNEST Science: safetynestscience.org
The New School at Commonweal: tns.commonweal.org
Zero Breast Cancer: zerobreastcancer.org

Image at top: Students make sleep masks as shown in Zero Breast Cancer's Healthy Futures Activity Book, teaching young children to move more, eat healthy, get enough sleep, and feel better. Photo: Hope Feldman

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