The National Physical Activity Plan is a multi-sectoral blueprint for creating a more robust culture of physical activity. It's appropriately aspirational, but grounded in practical objectives. Much like Healthy People 2020, it's great strength is its ability to unite powerful forces of change around common goals.

But the magnitude of the project - creating a cultural shift of national proportions - can feel overwhelming. So many changes need to be made in so many places. Real, measurable progress seems difficult to identify.

But like the journey of a thousand miles that begins with a single step, maybe cultural shifts of national proportions can begin with a single county.

And that county may be Greenville, South Carolina.

The folks of Greenville have created Livewell Greenville, a partnership of dozens of public and private organizations that aims to make Greenville County a healthier place to live, work, and play.

The approach of Livewell Greenville is to not only provide educational resources about healthy living, but also to create policies, systems and environments that make the healthy choice the easy choice.

The initiative focuses on seven societal buckets: at school, before and after school, at work, at the doctor, at mealtime, around town, and "for fun."

The following Livewell Greenville goals relate to physical activity:

• Provide tools to teachers to encourage physical activity during learning and throughout the day.
• Encourage more childcare providers to serve healthy meals and snacks and offer regular structured physical activity in licensed childcare centers.
• Encourage more after school providers to serve healthy meals and snacks and offer regular structured physical activity in non-licensed after school programs.
• Incentivize after school programs and childcare centers to adopt policies that support healthy eating and active living among children.
• Increase the number of work places that adopt policies and environments that support employees in staying physically active and eating healthy, nutritious food.
• Encourage health care providers to provide patients with practical referrals for healthy eating, active living, and treatment for obesity.
• Enable residents to run errands and commute on foot, by bike, or on Greenlink.
• Enable more Greenville County children to walk to school safely.
• Encourage neighborhood groups and residents to become more involved in the transportation planning process.
• Increase safety through Park Watch programs.
• Increase access to basic recreation facilities through the development of a model Complete Parks policy.
• Increase accessibility to local parks.
• Increase awareness of local facilities where residents can play and be active.

My hope is that Livewill Greenville will inspire thousands of similar community-based efforts around the country. Surely, duplicating the initiative would not be easy, and Livewelll Greenville benefits from the talents of dedicated community champions willing to invest significant time to make the initiative meaningful, but I'm willing to bet that every community has champions who are up for the challenge. Maybe every community won't succeed, but given what's at stake, it's certainly worth a try.

To follow the progress of Livewell Greenville and learn more about their inspirational community efforts, please visit livewellgreenville.org.

What are some examples of other communities dedicated to creating a healthier place to live, work, and play?

We who teach know that real education involves putting ideas into action. A science lesson hits home when textbook reactions are tested in the lab. Rote rules of grammar become the sinews of real writing. Similarly, we who advocate physical activity for health can do real and lasting good when we go beyond preaching healthy lifestyles to helping them become reality.

Examples abound, from teachers scheduling classroom physical activity breaks to neighbors pitching in to create pocket parks where they are most needed. More employers are starting workplace wellness programs and toting up gains in productivity, morale and cost savings. Friends are exercising together for support and motivation.

Such efforts are happening community-wide, as well. The ACSM American Fitness Index, valued as an assessment tool that gauges the health status of the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, now is helping communities bring about changes that will make a substantive difference in their residents' health and wellness.

The AFI Technical Assistance Program (TAP) builds upon the annual AFI data report. Working with selected communities (originally, Indianapolis and Oklahoma City, then expanding to ten through 2013), TAP seeks to identify actionable areas with the best evidence for improving health and fitness at the community level. The goal is not to recreate the wheel, but rather to coordinate and streamline efforts already underway. Steps include:

• Interviews with community advocates and experts
• Working with a community team to create a five-year strategic plan
• Public evaluation and comment
• Implementation and evaluation, with help from ACSM experts

Quite a process, isn't it? TAP is designed to get results and, importantly, is evidence-based and accountable. A grant from the WellPoint Foundation helps make it possible.

While every community may benefit from a comprehensive approach to planning and implementation like the AFI Technical Assistance Program, there is incalculable, cumulative benefit in the thousands of programs and projects that Americans are putting into place to foster more physically active communities.

Let's learn from the TAP and other programs, keeping our eyes open for the efforts of any size that can add up to real change. The National Physical Activity Plan and the ACSM American Fitness Index offer the big picture; it's up to us to make it real at a level that affects everyone in the US.

What efforts are underway in your community to improve opportunities for health and wellness?

What's being done to address gaps identified in the American Fitness Index?

This blog post has been contributed by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

To health professionals, planners and transportation experts, active transportation (i.e. walking and biking as an alternative to car travel) is a no-brainer. Communities that facilitate non-motorized modes as safe and convenient options for getting from A to B simply function better. They have less pollution, their population is healthier, downtown business areas are more vibrant, and real estate values are stronger as their neighborhoods reflect what more Americans are demanding of their environments these days - diversity of transportation choices.

Not only that, but these facilities make economic sense too. A mile of paved trail can cost the same as just a few yards of urban four-lane road, not to mention the associated savings of non-motorized transportation stemming from reduced oil consumption and spending on reactive health care. This is why building environments that encourage walking and bicycling is a key part of the National Physical Activity Plan, and a major component of its strategies.

Unfortunately, despite the overwhelming support of the public health community, local planners and officials, businesspeople and residents, there are still some political and financial barriers to building these kinds of environments. For example, the Transportation Enhancements (TE) program was recently an agenda item during government budget planning. TE is the nation's largest funding source for trails, walking and bicycling. Working with numerous partners, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) led an effort to ensure our elected leaders knew how important walking and biking options were to their constituents. In the end, vital active transportation programs like TE were preserved intact.

RTC knows it is important to secure adequate funding for active transportation into the future. So, what we know to be a public health issue - the effort to increase physical activity in our everyday lives - is also an effort of political will.

In an era of fiscal constraint, presenting economic benefits could have the most weight when discussing the issue with policymakers. With walking and biking, it is an easy argument to make.

Biking and walking infrastructure account for less than two percent of the entire federal surface transportation budget, yet account for 12 percent of all trips taken in America. And trail construction projects have been shown to create more jobs, and more local jobs, for every $1 spent, than road construction. This is both smart financial investment and good health policy.

The voice of the health community, which understands so clearly that investing in walking and biking could translate into a significant reduction in our health care expenditure, adds yet another dimension to a case that is already hard to dismiss.

The great work being done through the National Physical Activity Plan will only be realized as health gains if we are able to maintain funding and support for facilities that encourage biking, walking, and active ways of getting around.

How will you encourage the funding of facilities that promote active transportation?

Pictured: Community trails like the Hudson River Greenway (top image) in New York and the Ojai Valley Trail in California are crucial in providing transportation options for residents that incorporate health and fitness into their daily lives.

Want to know more about how RTC is working to build a better landscape for walking and biking? Contact Kartik Sribarra at kartik@railstotrails.org.