Building Blocks for Healthy Communities * Try This West Virginia

© Kate Long 2015

A menu of possible healthy community projects

Get familiar with these choices

The mayor of Sutton once said, “We’d like to do something about childhood obesity. But we’re not sure what to do, and I don’t know why we should have to stumble around, trying to find something. Surely, somebody’s been down this road before. Why can’t somebody just hand us a menu of good choices?”

Here’s the menu! All these projects are encouraged by the Centers for Disease Control. All increase physical activity and/or increase access to fresh food. Research shows that those two things lower the risk of hear disease, type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases that plague West Virginia.

Use this checklist to find out how familiar you are withhealthy-community projects.Use it in combo with .Which projects are you familiar with? Which do you need to learn about? It’s a handy-dandy quick-education-yourself tool. Each item is linked to the appropriate page on . If you aren’t sure what something is, just click on the link and up will pop a page that can turn you into an instant expert!

Use this menu to get yourself up to speed:

  • Fill it out, using the key below.
  • Each underlined item is a live link to the corresponding page. Control + click on the link, and the Try This page will pop up.
  • The first time through, don’t click links. Get baseline on yourself. Find out: What are you already most familiar with? Where do you need to read up?
  • Your completed menu is a study guide. Study each page and get familiar.

Key:

  1. I don’t know (or barely know) what this is.
  2. I’ve heard about this activity, but am not sure how to start it or grow it.
  3. I’m familiar with this activity, but cannot yet guide anybody to helpful resources.
  4. I know a lot about this activity, but I’ll read the page to get familiar with more resources.
  5. I’m familiar with a wide range of “how-to” resources for this activity, and I’ve read the page.

Healthy eating: the community as a whole
Activity / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Notes
Start/expand afarmers’
market
Plant community gardens
Get convenience stores to sell fresh produce
Build community greenhouse
Find ways todistribute/package/sell locally-grown foods
Encourage home gardening
Promote food preservation
Feature healthy items in grocery stores
Set up healthy cooking classes
Teach people to read labels and comparison-shop
Make your food pantries healthier
Encourage breastfeeding
Physical activity: community
Activity / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Notes
RUNNING/WALKING PROGRAMS / Start/expanda local running/walking club
Start/expand kids’ running programs
Offer challenges and group competitions to get people involved
Offer beginning running classes
Organize a monthly local 5K
Build and connect trails
Buildsidewalks to encourage walking
Map your walking/running/hiking trails
BIKING PROGRMAS / Start a road bikinggroup
Encourage mountain biking
Put up bike racks in your community
Encourage bike stores
Adopt a complete streets policy
Do a walkability/bikeability assessment
Make a safe bikingmap
Apply to be a bike-friendly community
WATER SPORTS / Get people out onto rivers and lakes
Create watershed association to protect & promote streams
Open safe public access points to rivers lakes
Get a river designated as an official water trail
Encourage fishing
ACTIVE KIDS PROGRAMS / Start youth sports league
Add physical activity to afterschool programs
Create active summer programs
Organize a Girls on the Run program
Building a Foundation
Activity / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Notes
Create a healthy community planning group
Create a regular community conversation
Get community development training
Things local officials can do
Activity / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Notes
Help create a community conversation group
Join or help form a healthy lifestyles development group
Adopt a complete streets policy
Approve shared- used agreements to use public buildings/school gyms after hours
Help create public access to rivers and lakes
Support water trail designation
Create bike parking
Make it legal to raise food & small animals in town
Build sidewalks
Healthy eating in schools
Activity / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Notes
Expand/create a Farm to School program
Create a school gardening program
Build school high tunnel greenhouses
Teach kids how to make healthy food choices
Teach healthy cooking: cook food you raise
Use healthy snacks as teaching tools
Make school meals more nutritious
Provide healthy school breakfast
Pay attention to presentation of school food
Create healthy child care programs
Physical Activity: Schools
Activity / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Notes
Weave physical activity through the school-day
Get everyday recess in schools
Start a school wellness program
Organize a Girls on the Run chapter
Create school walks; run-for-fun groups; school fitness trails
Get kids jumping rope & other aerobic activities
Chronic disease prevention
Activity / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / Notes
Start a diabetes coalition
Offer anti-diabetes classes at libraries and public buildings
Create school-basedhealth centers

Good questions to ask after choosing projects:

If you answer these questions before writing a grant application, you will avoid problems down the road. Most funders expect evidence that a group has done this kind of planning.

  1. Who is already working on this activity and what are they doing? (e.g. If you want to start a farmers market, who is already selling by the road? Who is working on healthy diet? Etc.)
  2. Who should be at the planning table and help take first steps? (Think beyond agencies: individual community members, retired people, churches, service groups, youth groups, sports groups, local government, Extension … )
  3. Who already LOVES this activity? How can we get them involved?
  4. Who/what organization will take the lead on this?
  5. Where could we carry out this activity?
  6. What resources will we need to get started?
  7. What groups or people could contribute resources? For each, list what they might contribute. (If you’ve read your funding guide, you know funders love to see evidence that you’ve started trying to help yourself. They also want to know there are a range of local groups supporting this project.)
  8. Who will contact these groups about the project?
  9. Resources/funding (How much do we think this would cost? What can we get donated?
  10. Who will read the Try This funding guide (