I Can: An Easy Guide to Healthy Bodies and Minds is a prevention-focused wellness movement helping schools build healthier students, stronger educators, engaged families, and thriving communities.
About I Can
I Can was created to help schools move beyond isolated wellness initiatives by integrating physical health, mental wellness, nutrition, movement, family engagement, and educator well-being into one coordinated system that supports lasting healthy habits.
We Believe
Healthy students learn better.
Healthy educators teach better.
Healthy families strengthen communities.
Prevention is more powerful than reaction.
Small daily habits create lifelong transformations.
Why I Can Exists
Louisiana continues to face some of the nation’s steepest health challenges. High rates of childhood obesity, mental health struggles, and chronic diseases—coupled with a severe shortage of preventative care—directly threaten our children's physical and emotional well-being. Inside the classroom, these health crises quickly transform into academic roadblocks, showing up as chronic absenteeism, behavioral struggles, and severe difficulties concentrating. Ultimately, when a child’s health suffers, their ability to learn suffers with it.
Instead of waiting to address these challenges later in life, our approach focuses heavily on early prevention. We believe healthy habits must be built during a child's formative years and reinforced daily by those who influence them the most—schools, families, and communities. By adopting a comprehensive, 'whole-school' approach to wellness, we are creating a foundation of physical and mental health that children can carry with them forever. Ultimately, our goal is to shape the daily habits, critical knowledge, and resilient mindsets that empower Louisiana's youth to make healthier choices for a lifetime.
Building a Culture of Wellness
Lasting change comes from practicing healthy habits consistently until they become part of everyday life. When students, educators, and families are supported together, healthy habits become part of the culture.
I Can helps schools build that culture through six connected pillars:
🧠 Mental Wellness
Develop emotional awareness, resilience, self-regulation, and healthy decision-making through daily social-emotional learning and mindfulness practices.
🥗Nutrition
Increase health literacy and empower students and families to make informed food choices through practical, realistic nutrition education.
🏃 Physical Activity
Encourage daily movement that improves physical health, focus, energy, and readiness to learn.
👨👩👧 Family Engagement
Extend healthy habits beyond the classroom by providing families with tools, resources, and simple ways to reinforce wellness at home.
👩🏫 Educator Wellness
Support the well-being of educators because healthy, supported teachers create stronger learning environments.
📊 Growth & Progress
Provide schools with meaningful participation and wellness data to celebrate progress, identify opportunities, and guide decision-making.
Together, these pillars create an environment where healthier choices become easier choices, helping students build habits that support lifelong success.
The I Can Behavior Change Framework
The I Can Behavior Change Framework is a comprehensive, whole-school approach to wellness built on six core pillars and an interactive daily habit cycle. We transform healthy behaviors into lifelong habits through consistent practice, reflection, and reinforcement across the entire school community.
🏛️ The Six Pillars of Whole-School Wellness
Our system coordinates six interconnected pillars to ensure that healthy habits become a natural part of everyday life for everyone involved.
Mental Wellness
Nutrition
Physical Activity
Family Engagement
Educator Wellness
Growth & Progress
🧬 Our Core Methodology
🔬 The Science of Habit
Lasting behavior change requires more than just information. Neuroscience and behavioral research prove that healthy habits are only sustained through consistent practice, positive reinforcement, intentional reflection, and highly supportive environments. The I Can Framework translates this evidence-based strategy into daily action.
🌐 The Ecosystem Approach
A student’s wellness is influenced by their entire environment, not just their classroom desk. By simultaneously supporting students, educators, families, and school leaders, our system embeds wellness directly into the school’s culture.
🔄 The Process: The I Can Habit Cycle
Every wellness experience we design follows a structured, six-step journey. This loop ensures participants move fluidly from gaining knowledge to achieving lifelong growth.
📚 Learn → 💪 Practice → 💭 Reflect → 📈 Track Progress → 🔁 Repeat → 🌱 Grow
📚 Learn: Gain foundational knowledge about physical and emotional health choices.
💪 Practice: Actively apply new healthy behaviors in a supportive, real-world setting.
💭 Reflect: Pause to evaluate how the new choice feels physically and mentally.
📈 Track Progress: Celebrate data milestones and visualize personal improvements over time.
🔁 Repeat: Lean on community reinforcement to turn actions into subconscious routines.
🌱 Grow: Solidify a lasting mindset shift that supports well-being far beyond the classroom.
The Future of I Can
We believe the future of education is one where wellness is a foundational launching pad for learning, rather than an afterthought. Many incredible school programs already work hard to teach health and support students. Our vision is to elevate and unite these efforts by weaving wellness directly into the daily fabric of the school day.
Instead of treating health as an occasional, isolated lesson, the I Can Framework builds a bridge between students, educators, families, and school leaders. We equip communities with the daily tools and meaningful insights needed to address wellness challenges upstream, creating a supportive ecosystem where healthy habits naturally become part of everyday life.
Our movement extends far beyond improving today's classroom environment. By transforming small, daily choices into subconscious routines, we are building a lasting foundation of physical health and mental resilience. Together, we are creating healthier schools, deeper community connections, and a sustainable blueprint for well-being that students will carry with them for the rest of their lives. Because when we change daily habits, we don't just change a school year—we change generations.
💡 The Takeaway
Healthy habits today. Stronger generations tomorrow.
Meet The Founder
Brittany Hebert, MSN, APRN, FNP-C is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner, nursing educator, and founder of ThriveWell Initiative LLC. Drawing on her experience in healthcare, education, and community wellness, she created I Can to help schools build healthier students, stronger educators, and more connected families through prevention-focused wellness.
