If you are like many of us, you have found that applying the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in your communties, families, and everyday lives can be challenging. These two important policy documents provide guidance on the importance of being physically active and selecting nutritious foods for living a long and healthy life. However, we know individuals are frequently crunched for time, on a limited budget, or just do not know how to make healthy foods taste yummy. Whatever challenges members of your community face when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, the Eat Healthy ● Be Active Community Workshops can help you teach adults how to be active and make healthy food choices everyday in the places where they live, work, and play.

Based on the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelies for Americans and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, the Eat Healthy ● Be Active Community Workshops are designed for community educators, health promoters, dietitians/nutritionists, cooperative extension agents, and others to teach adults how to put the Guidelines into practice in their everyday lives. This information is creatively packaged in six easy-to-use, interactive workshops. Each workshop contains specific learning objectives, icebreaker activities, talking points, handouts, evaluation forms to gather feedback from participants, and hands-on activities for helping to make lasting lifestyle changes. In addition, the workshop series includes video vignettes, live demonstrations, and a list of helpful resources. The complete Eat Healthy ● Be Active Community Workshop series is made up of the following: 

1. Enjoy Healthy Food That Tastes Great

2. Quick, Healthy Meals and Snacks

3. Eating Healthy on a Budget

4. Top Tips for Losing Weight and Keeping It Off

5. Making Healthy Eating Part of Your Total Lifestyle

6. Physical Activity is the Key to Living Well

We know every community and every family is different. That’s why the Eat Healthy ● Be Active Community Workshops and corresponding materials were created to be suitable for all groups of adults, including those who may not have the ability to find, understand, and use basic health information. Developed using health literacy principles, the workshops were pilot tested at ten sites across the U.S., including cooperative extension programs, worksite wellness programs, Head Start, and community groups. After attending the workshops, many participants reported increased physical activity levels and positive behavior changes in their nutrition choices. So no matter where your community is located, the Eat Healthy ● Be Active Community Workshops can help you teach adults how to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyles through regular physical activity and healthy eating.

Download all the workshops, along with an introduction and appendix section, for free at www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines.

How could you use the Eat Healthy ● Be Active Community Workshops in your community?

This week we would like to spotlight the Hip Hop Healthy Heart Program for Children™ (Hip Hop), a comprehensive wellness program bringing together physical education, music, and arts in grade K-6th.

The Program Basics

Hip Hop works through wellness education that flows from teacher, to student, to family and the community at large. It requires parents/guardian/mentors to be involved in training on a daily basis, not only helping to reinforce the lessons at home, but also by personally participating in the President’s Active Lifestyle Award Program (PALA). It has 8 multidiciplinary modules and inspires kids to participate by recognizing their achievements with:

• Award certificates for completion of each module
• Certificate of Completion for the entire program.

In order to receive their final program certificate, students and an adult partner are required to register for the PALA when they start Module 1.

Measuring Success

Jyl Steinback, co-creator of the program and Executive Director of Shape Up US mentioned two ways in which Hip Hop is evaluated:

• Educational Assessment: Students are required to complete a written test to assess their comprehension of the topic. Upon passing each module test, students will receive a module certificate of completion and will be eligible for additional awards and prizes.

• Health Assessment: To make sure that the positive lifestyle lessons taught in Hip Hop are truly making a difference, Shape Up US has partnered with HeartSmartKids to track each student’s health progress. Anthropometric data, lifestyle factors, and family history are assessed and tracked using this system.
  

Challenges

Steinbeck states that, “in some cases, students may not have a parent, guardian or partner/mentor available, or able to participate.” In such cases, she suggests that instructors help students partner with another role model so that they can participate in the program: older siblings; grandparents; recent retiree volunteer - Check www.AARP.org ; student mentor from a local high school as part of the high school’s community service curriculum.

Implementing a Similar Program in Your Community

Use existing infrastructure- The Hip Hop model relies on training educators, healthcare professionals and others who work with groups of children. This creates a program with controlled costs because it builds on existing infrastructure. In your community, try building upon existing infrastructures to implement your program. 

Engage parents and guardians- To help engage partners to get the maximum benefit of Hip Hop:

• Letters to send home to parents that provides parents with information about the curriculum prior to starting it
• Parent, guardian or partner/mentor contracts for each module

Reach out to encourage participation-

• Scheduling a group meeting to discuss the curriculum
• Send home personal invitations to the group meeting and ask parent/guardians to RSVP by a specific date.
• Telephone parents who do not respond and encourage them to participate
  

Don’t forget potential resources in your community- Hip Hop is designed to be taught many different types of teachers. Programs like this can be taught by:

• Public/Private School Teachers as part of their regular curriculum
• Home School Instructors
• PE Instructors
• Fitness Instructors at Health Clubs, After School Programs, YMCA, etc.
• Park and Recreation Instructors

Have you used existing infrastructure to implement a physical activity program? How?

This week we would like to spotlight Healthy & Fit on the Go, a program designed to inspire behavior change by providing tips and tools for self-care, healthy eating and physical activity for University of Minnesota Extension staff.

The Program Basics

Healthy & Fit on the Go is a program designed to inspire behavior change by providing tips and tools for self-care, healthy eating and physical activity for Extension staff who spend a great deal of their work day in the car. The Physical Activity Guidelines are used as the basis for materials development. A review of the research in behavior change, nutrition and physical activity resulted in this series of 10 how-to tip cards packaged in a take-along kit with a lunch bag, water bottle and exercise band.

This program is designed as a worksite wellness initiative; a pilot was conducted with staff that included an education session featuring the materials in the kit: an insulated lunch bag with re-freezable ice pack, a medium-resistance exercise band, a BPA-free water bottle and 4 how-to tip cards for healthy eating choices and physical activity ideas.

Components of the kit were distributed and demonstrated at the Annual Conference of Extension Educators during October 2010.

Measuring Success

Betsy Johnson and her colleagues conduct end-of-conference surveys at the close of each annual conference where distribution, education and demonstration occur. In addition, kit-specific online surveys are sent at 3-month and 6-month intervals following the conferences. Online surveys include a request for input regarding the usefulness of the kit contents as well as suggestions for tip card topics.

Initial results indicated a strong motivation for changing behavior upon receipt of the portable kit with actual changes exceeding 40 percent for recipients after the first year.

Challenges

Johnson mentioned three main challenges for the program:

• Institutionalization: “It was relatively easy the first year to ensure all staff received the kit and participated in the education/demonstration. In years 2 and 3 we are experiencing some issues around distribution and education to new staff as well as distributing and educating staff about new tip cards.”

• Individual motivation: “Kit recipients are motivated to use the materials immediately following the conference as evidenced in post-conference surveys. But motivation decreases as time passes. The 3-month and 6-month surveys indicate less actual use/behavior change the further away from the conference. But, each survey does serve as a reminder about the kit and some become motivated by that reminder.”

• Cost: “As we expand to the staff in more program areas within Extension (and are faced with state budget crises) we are testing components of the kit for usefulness and cost-effectiveness as a way to motivate behavior change at a lower cost.”

Implementing a Similar Program in Your Community

Try using the following suggestions when implementing a program like this in your community:

As we’ve heard with other programs, get leadership buy-in. With upper management support for the effort, it will more likely be integrated into the planning for a conference or program; without that support, all expense and effort could be wasted.

Develop a systematic reminder system to maintain the motivation for behavior change that follows the education sessions.

Respond to suggestions for improvements, changes or additional tips and materials; it must be relevant to the user or it won’t be used.

If materials and education are distributed once a year at a conference, plan for 3-5 years worth of new materials to keep it fresh and to create the expectation that this wellness program is part of the conference culture.