What’s creative about walking? If you are Aegis Therapies, a leading provider of contract rehabilitation and wellness services in the United States, the answer is everything.

One of the company’s recent innovations, WALK! with Aegis Therapies, has garnered nationwide attention as more than 50,000 participants collectively walked about 100,000 miles by the end of the company’s weeklong celebration of health and wellness, held September 20–24, in 2010.

How did Aegis accomplish these numbers, especially given the fact that their first Walk Your Ageis event took place in 2009?

First off, the events are hosted at 582 client locations across the US, including independent living communities, assisted living centers, continuing care retirement communities, skilled nursing facilities, and other locations.

Everyone participating in WALK! with Aegis Therapies receives an activity card for the week. Attendees walk 15–30 minutes on each of the five days. They also listen to upbeat songs on CDs narrated by health and fitness expert Chris Freytag, which are custom-made for these activities. In addition to daily walking, the program features other activities designed to encourage active aging and wellness and highlight different dimensions of wellness. These events are structured to remind participants of the importance of nourishing their emotional and intellectual health, in addition to maintaining their physical well-being.

Each participant’s activity card is stamped to mark days they complete both the daily walking exercise and the wellness activity planned for the day. Participating sites calculate miles walked daily by participants at each location, and Aegis staff tally the total miles walked at locations across the nation. Aegis also track contributions of participants who are in wheelchairs or otherwise unable to walk, as they engage in other physical activities.

In addition to walking, each day of WALK! with Aegis Therapies incorporates another dimension of wellness as follows:

Monday: intellectual wellness
Creative and stimulating mental activities include trivia questions about America and brain teasers.

Tuesday: emotional wellness
Activities encourage participants to stay positive, connect with others, and remain physically active. Attendees write thank-you or caring notes to friends, loved ones or caregivers; alternatively, they may engage in another activity that promotes positive thinking.

Wednesday: spiritual wellness
A 15-minute guided meditation segment encourages participants to merge the physical realm of wellness with the spiritual.

Thursday: occupational wellness
Participants engage each other in a game that involves going through the alphabet and listing as many occupations as they can for each letter.

Friday: social wellness
Activities promote social wellness and the importance of socializing with others. Socializing involves using good communications skills, having meaningful relationships, respecting yourself and others, and creating a support system that includes family, friends and caregivers.

Summary

Ultimately, WALK! with Aegis Therapies helps to spread the word about the importance of getting—and staying—healthy, and that participants use the program as a springboard to a happier and healthier life.

What are you doing to turn basic ideas into creative programming?

Written by guest blogger, Jake Lynch, from Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

In recent years Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) has seen trails evolve from being considered purely as recreational facilities to occupying a key role in the relationship between built environments and public health. But building the trails themselves is only half the battle. Longer-term work involves encouraging their use, investing residents and users with a sense of ownership, and making trails a natural, integral part of the community.

To facilitate this relationship, RTC staff must be creative, running programs that, at first glance, seem far removed from their trails mission. For example, RTC staff recently helped students at a D.C. school paint a colorful mural on a trailside wall, next to a vegetable garden. We brought along a fitness instructor who specialized in children’s activities, so the young artists took breaks from painting by running, stretching and racing along the trail. The event began a gradual process of familiarization that the trail is for them, that it connects to their school, and that it offers physical and personal freedom in an environment that can be restrictive. 

In Pittsburgh, RTC sponsors students from low-income neighborhoods to join the annual Sojourn bicycle tour. As training, volunteers from Bike Pittsburgh lead rides along local trails. To warm up, they do yoga. It’s a wonderful sight: A group of young black students in the Lion’s Pose as cyclists and joggers cruise by. Bike Pittsburgh also operates a Free Ride Recycled Bike Shop. In areas where being able to afford a bike is a major obstacle, creative initiatives like these have a real impact on the number of people riding for regular trips.

In Spartanburg, S.C., an educational scavenger hunt on the Mary Black Trail is increasing trail usage among students and seniors. Small train sculptures are hidden along the trail; kiosks, signage and iPods transmit historical facts and scavenger hunt clues. Organizers hope to bring regular educational trails trips into the school syllabus.

Across America, rail-trail organizations stage fun runs and races. An underlying purpose of these events is to establish the local trail in the collective mind of the community as a free fitness and recreation facility open to all. Staging events for people who are already active runners does little to address broader health goals, so trail organizers are innovating and expanding their reach. An annual fitness day on the Hurley Trail in New York includes a cycle-spin workshop and Zumba sessions. ‘Trail Mix’ on the W&OD Trail combines biking, walking and the area's Civil War history, plus live entertainment and sports clinics. The Morgana Run hosts "Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound."

Trails are the backbone of programs that provide incentives for students to ride or walk to school, ostensibly to reduce vehicle congestion at drop-off and pick-up times. RTC hosts Compton BikeFest, encouraging riding among children in inner-city communities, a focus of anti-obesity efforts. For trails advocates, the key to increasing physical activity is often to make it about anything but the exercise, promoting the financial savings, convenience, accessibility, freedom, social interaction and environmental aspects of riding and biking.  

Public park and recreation agencies and school districts in many areas have utilized Joint Use Agreements (JUA) for years. The National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity (NPLAN) "defines a JUA as a formal agreement between two separate government entities - stating terms and conditions for shared use of public property or facilities." Pooling of resources allows for more effective use of government dollars, which in today's economy takes on even greater meaning as well as a heightened sense of urgency. Groups advocating for physical activity have recently begun encouraging more towns, cities and counties to consider such agreements as a way to increase the number of physical activity opportunities for their residents.

Consider the following... School playgrounds are open to the community on weekends in San Francisco as a result of a joint use agreement between the school district and the city. The City of Seattle took things a bit further... they designed and implemented a program that centralized scheduling of both school and recreation facilities, which streamlined the reservation policy and increased access. In several communities, schools and cities have combined their resources to build new recreation facilities that serve the needs of both the schools and the community (NPLAN).

The National Physical Activity Plan includes JUAs as important strategies in both the Education sector and the Parks, Fitness Recreation and Sport (PFRS) sector. The Make the Move Report - 2010-2011 National Implementation of the U.S. Physical Activity Plan lists increasing the number of JUAs by 10% over the next 5 years as a priority for the PRFS sector. The President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition is co-leading this strategy with the National Recreation and Park Association.

I encourage advocates to look beyond government though for JUAs and to consider the possibility of public-private agreements. The Wheaton Park District used an innovative approach to increase their number of (much in demand) soccer fields. A large corporate campus sat at the edge of park district and had plenty of flat (this was Illinois!), green space that was there purely for its aesthetic value. The two organizations signed an agreement that stated the park district would mow the grass in return for its use as soccer fields evenings and weekends. I dare say there are many possibilities like this across the country.

Perhaps there is a private health club located near a school. Use of the club may be sparse during the day... what a great opportunity for a PE class! Maybe there's a camp nearby used only in the summer... strike a deal for use of its athletic facilities. Many places of worship even have recreational facilities. The possibilities are endless to increase spaces and places for people of all ages to engage in physical activity - if you just think the outside the box a bit!

What kinds of unique joint use agreements can you think of? Are there facilities in your own community that you could see working with to increase the opportunities for physical activity?