Washington Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity

Local Physical Activity Coalitions Conference Call

April 25, 2006              9:00-11:00 AM

 

1.                    Introductions. Participants included: James Kissee, Washington State Department of Health; Jane Moore, Washington Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity; Amy Shumann, King County; Dianne Dyer, San Juan County; Eileen Finnegan, Pierce County; Heleen Dewey, Spokane County; Karen Grossman, Island County; Liz McNett Crowl, Skagit County; Paul Youmans, Cowlitz County; Nicole Willis, Whatcom County; Pat Degracia and Melinda Harmon, Kitsap County, and Wilma Weber, Grays Harbor County

2.                    Jane presented a brief update on state coalition activities. WCPPA is looking for committee members. An Active Living Leadership Forum will be held June 8th. She will send out further information.

3.                    Sharing What’s Hot – information from each coalition

a.      Amy – King County coalition has been on hold for about 1-1/2 years; a physical activity subgroup has been working on obesity prevention initiative; normal meetings and projects have not been happening.

b.      Paul – Cowlitz held a 1st anniversary event to recognize champions including a trail system in Castle Rock and the Longview comprehensive plan update with a smart growth approach including bike and pedestrian access.
Longview has a supportive local government; the city planner attended the smart growth conference in Denver; the city council is receiving a smart growth grant from AIA to help with planning. Cowlitz is not a growth management county so planning is done on a city basis.
The coalition has a web page funded by Kaiser Permanente - cowlitzonthemove.org – has trail maps etc.

c.      Liz – Skagit County ACES (Active Community Environments) task force serves as non-motorized advisory committee. There are nine ACES counties/tribes funded by DOH/DOT; 3 ACES assessments have been done with tool kit – how easy is it to be active in the community; Assessments in Anacortes and Mt Vernon have been shared with planning departments, city council, and mayor. $17000 from community for Dan Burden walkabouts with 5 cities & college; followed by an all day public forum to share feedback on walkabouts and share possible improvements for a more active community environment.
On May 10 there will be a growth management act amendments focus group for Island, Whatcom, Skagit, and San Juan counties with CTED, DOH, & DOT. This will help determine what local transportation planners need to meet new growth management act requirements to include physical activity and health in each comprehensive plan.
On May 23 there will be Safe Routes to School training for the above counties plus Snohomish; a 3 hour presentation on how to work together, requirements for grants, and hints for a successful application. DOT will use this presentation for other areas. Charlotte Claybrooke at DOT will arrange local programs.
An ACES subcommittee is updating the bike map. They are working with health department and county to use GIS mapping so the map will be easier to update; it should be finished this summer.
Coalition has purchased trail counters; they are collecting baseline numbers of trail use so can see if programs make a difference in use. Cost was $1500 for software and 1 infrared counter; they plan to purchase a second counter next year. City implemented policies (adopt a trail & signage) designed by ACES group.

d.      Karen – Island County coalition is looking for ways to get county commissioners on board; ESSB 5186 information was sent to county officials. This is a fairly rural county consisting of Whidbey & Camano islands. There are three real towns, open space, lots of parks & trails. The coalition was instrumental in developing a trail map & activity guide; it was published in a magazine distributed to all residents except in Oak Harbor; 4 seasonal issues, 4 trails in each; maps, events, stories about activities; grid of local physical activity resources: parks, beach walks, basketball courts, tennis courts summer camps; paid advertising supported publication athletic club, bike shop, pt, yoga lodge; available at offices in Oak Harbor for people to pick up – real estate offices, chamber commerce, restaurants; people waiting for next issue; very popular, now publishers want to do; ads paid for last issue. 2 hours/day x 2 weeks to get info for each issue; maps 24x16” foldable.

e.      Eileen – Pierce County coalition active for 2 years; promote countywide walking; May 5 Let’s Walk Pierce County – speaker Robert Sweetgall; coalition members each contributing to cover cost – wellness coordinators not previously involved with coalition. 5 events free to public.
Plan to create booklet with walking routes throughout county.

f.        Wilma – Gray’s Harbor just started through CDC Healthy Communities funding; publisher working on trail maps/descriptions throughout county; distribute through primary care providers; have county health officer support; also parks and recreation and  physical therapists.
Weekly newspaper columns on physical activity on local basis; encourage baby steps to become active; family fun night at 2 local elementary schools; family activities for 1 hour once a week; Walking to school – more barriers than expected; trying to organize walking bus.

g.      Dianne Dyer San Juan; conducted employee wellness program consisting of 8 week walking program; pilot with county workers – teams, challenge; pedometer walk average steps for team per week; incentives and recognition; emails with ideas to increase activity & beactiveforlife.org web site; now sharing with businesses & organizations. Soroptomists will challenge all businesses in Friday Harbor.
Partnerships with schools – Lopez Lifts, Fit Moves – target students not on sports teams; fitness trainer and gym; help students get PE credits

h.      Heleen – Spokane has had physical activity & nutrition coalition since 2002; currently working on strategic planning process; focusing on K-12 access, urban planning/aces, worksite wellness, food insecurity. Have 4 task forces; partnering with parks. Designing program with staff person at popular park to help with structuring activities.
Do It for Health campaign for entire month of April: free activities each day; lots of different physical activities included; produced calendar of events guide – go to location, each has sign in sheet; information available at www.shrd.org
Are partnering with WSU design instructor – focus groups with seniors in city council district 1 – 5% over 85 years old; asking how could built environment make it healthy for you; if community is walkable for seniors, it is walkable for all.
In May will distribute physical activity resource guide; in the past this has been a newspaper insert; this year will print on high gloss card stock – lasts longer; link to transportation district bike-pedestrian map.
Initially this was a networking coalition, it became more active through strategic planning and facilitated meetings; physical activity & nutrition survey was done in February with a focus on barriers;
Coalition members were trained on best practices at the WCPPA annual meeting.

i.        Nicole – Whatcom – neighborhood walking project; working with neighborhood associations to create a walking map, residents tested routes for pedestrian friendliness, connect to trails/parks; local businesses distributed for free. Also on website; presented to county council, applied for funding for tool kit for neighborhoods to use to develop their own walking maps. Working on strategic plan; looking for community partner help develop physical activity & nutrition plan.

j.         Melinda Harmon – Kitsap – physical activity & nutrition coalition meets monthly; school district has plans for physical activity & nutrition; invites presentations on community activities; medical society hosted fun run; need to focus on specific long term activities, developing a strategic plan for long term goals and objectives; held a Safe Routes to School workshop yesterday – lots of excitement about implementing program.
School walking guides developed for Bremerton elementary schools with a map for each; Pat developed with school principals; safety tips specific to each school included; maps obtained from city.
Creating a curriculum called “Think, Eat and Be Healthy”; developed by students; will pilot at 4 schools.
Updating physical activity resources for older adults; will hold a senior event at Kitsap Pavilion with Art Linkletter.

k.      James – DOH Update: encourage businesses/government to change policies – serve healthy food at meetings, let employees use breaks to walk; has check off list; Scott Pritchard is working on a business wellness programs pilot in Spokane.
Thanks for sharing; email resources; for advice or technical assistance ask James; consider having regular conference calls; everyone should join state coalition; always look at environmental/policy changes to make sustainable; no state plan conference this year.

4.                    What Can WCPPA Do to Help Local Coalitions?

a.      Karen – county government leaders haven’t heard from peers; need to know what role of county government is in keeping residents more active; currently feel it is an individual behavior change issue; need a peer at the state level with passion for role of government to talk with them – might be more willing to listen.

b.      Heleen – Spokane had county commissioner start coalition; he’s gone, so in a similar situation now; could try a partnership with director of parks & recreation; go to leaders of other organizations to back up and share message.

c.      Eileen – Pierce – mentors preferred as method of learning for government officials; share list of names of government officials in each county who are interested in the topic.

d.      Amy – should focus on size and provide mentors from a similar size community.

e.      Karen – also need a statewide focus – to give an idea of the size of the movement.

f.        Eileen – keep contact list updated on beactive.org.

Each local coalition should send contact information for helpful government leaders to Jane; she will contact, write a newsletter article on the leader and compile & distribute a list of contacts.

How to share ideas/projects with rest of coalitions – Links to each others websites; compile list of websites. Update local coalition directory; send information to Jane to include.

Could also create a state toolbox with descriptions of current projects; Seattle King County has a health educators toolbox with downloadable ideas & templates.

5.                    Jane would like members of local coalitions to serve on WCPPA committees. Most work is done by email or conference call. She will distribute list of committees with descriptions with minutes from this call.

Amy: WCPPA would like each local coalition to send people to all conferences.

6.                    Conference call is useful in providing information about what works and doesn’t work. It would be helpful if each coalition would send information in advance – share project info to look at during call. Helpful to check in without travel; NW regional group meets every other month; twice a year would be enough for these calls.

7.                    November for next call; morning time is ok; send notice ahead of time.