HealthMatters Comes to Canyon Del Oro High School
By Drew Milne
During the summer of 2025, the HealthMatters program at ArtWorks helped people with intellectual disabilities get active, learn healthy habits, and have fun with their peers at the same time. Now, HealthMatters is moving beyond the U of A campus and into the community, starting at Canyon Del Oro High School in Tucson, AZ.
The collaboration with Canyon Del Oro (CDO) High School came together when, seeing the success of the program’s run at ArtWorks last summer, ArtWorks director Yumi Shirai and Sonoran Center Transition Program Manager Loretta Alvarez brainstormed how the program could be applied to other settings.
“Loretta is a former special education teacher, and she said the Adaptive PE/Special Olympics class at CDO would be perfect [for HealthMatters],” said Yumi. “because they have a classroom of special education students and general education students combined together in the same classroom, focusing on Special Olympics activities. So, the exercises they do in class align well with the HealthMatters written curriculum. They have scheduled regular outdoor exercises with their classroom teacher, and we can provide additional health education content during our twice-monthly visits.”
The lessons at CDO high school, like the ones last summer at ArtWorks, aim to provide a holistic approach to health. Lesson subjects include nutrition, sleep, exercise safety, mental health, building healthy habits, and cardiovascular health. Each lesson also includes an exercise in one of four categories: Stretching, Strength, Cardio, and Balance.
“I think HealthMatters does a really great job throughout the lessons of repeating the really important aspects of having holistic health, like physical movement, healthy eating, and mental and social well-being,” Loretta said.
The program is designed specifically for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, the information in the lessons applies to everyone. Learning together in the same setting is an opportunity for students with and without disabilities to have fun and build community with each other. By being there and facilitating the lesson, the peer mentors show the whole classroom that disabled youth can become thriving, healthy disabled adults. For youth with disabilities, they provide an example of where their own life paths may lead. For non-disabled youth, this provides much-needed disability representation, and a reminder that people with disabilities exist in all ages and demographics.
“We try to aim for intergenerational interaction,” said Yumi. “For students with IDD, it helps to observe what it's like to become an adult, experience life beyond high school, and explore leadership opportunities”
As Dr. Shirai explained, the HealthMatters curriculum fits right into CDO’s Adaptive PE/Special Olympics class. For most of the week, the students are doing exercises and practicing for Special Olympics events outside of the classroom. One day a week, however, the students are in the classroom, which is just the right setup for students to learn HealthMatters’ lessons and exercises and then study and train throughout the week.
“Maya [Sonoran Center trainee] developed slides for us, and then Cody, he's our artist, he would go through the slides and give the lecture to the students,” said Yumi.
“Then we facilitate the conversation,” she continued. “and then Maggie and Cody and I collectively do the exercise wheel. So, we have a learning side and an exercise activity for each unit. Then we can continue to talk about and build upon their knowledge and practice.”
“We have an exercise wheel," Loretta said. “You spin the wheel and whatever color it lands on, you pick from the cards. Then, you do that movement to music. The students all have their individual binder with the lesson information in it so they can reference it later. They can take it home and share with their families and have conversations about what they're learning.”
The program also included a visit to Tucson Village Farm, a program through UA Cooperative Extension, to reinforce the lessons on healthy nutrition and eating habits. Plus, they could see the process of growing and preparing locally-sourced food right in their own community firsthand.
“It's not only taking the content and curriculum and sharing it with a different group of people, high school students in this case, but now it's helping them connect with a community organization that also really values and connects to that content as well,” Loretta said of the field trip.
Looking ahead, Yumi and Loretta believe that HealthMatters could be integrated into other schools as well as group homes and day programs.
“We want to expand to other high schools, as well as day programs and group homes that we can visit,” said Yumi. “We also would like to have more peer mentors, people with IDD, and older community members to be trained as co-instructors, facilitators or volunteers. We need the funds to do that because we like to pay peer facilitators and those who organize.”
To learn more or get involved, please contact Yumi Shirai at yumish@arizona.edu.