It’s raining outside. I do not have the time in my day. Walking is not vigorous enough to actually benefit my health. These are only a few of the excuses individuals use on a regular basis to justify a lack of daily physical activity. So how can practitioners reach communities regarding the importance of walking and staying active? Dr. Gregory Heath discusses some of the approaches and strategies as well as keys to success of implementing community and school level walking programs to increase individuals’ overall health and lower risk of chronic disease.
A large barrier to the success of walking programs is a lack of knowledge on the part of the community. The national physical activity guidelines suggest a minimum dosage of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week to receive any health benefits. This could be spread into a short ten-minute brisk walk each morning and evening throughout every day of the week, or condensed into more vigorous activities on fewer days of the week, but either way physical activity promotes many health benefits. Dr. Heath discusses the importance of increasing this awareness using broad, multicomponent strategi
es that reach across many sectors. Implementing walking programs requires partnership among not only the local community health department, but also the schools, parks and recreation department, neighborhoods and citizens themselves. For example, many walking school bus interventions or Kids Walk-To-School programs require organization and advocacy at the school level via teacher support as well as parental 
involvement.
Another important key to success is implementation of a social support network, a behavioral approach to walking interventions. Providing social support and groups can dispel many of the previously mentioned excuses. Exercise Honolulu, an initiative that aimed to improve walkability by implementing walking events at a central location, provided both a measure of accountability and a social environment in which to engage by establishing 6 Sunday walks throughout 25 neighborhoods. This campaign involved an informational approach in addition to the initiative being promoted via media press releases and radio advertisements to disseminate the benefits of the event.
Practitioners can utilize this overview of approaches and keys to success to help implement walking programs within their own communities. Ensuring a successful program requires multi-sector cooperation and coordination, appropriate use of promotional techniques, and provision of a social support to ensure an enjoyable environment.
“Effective Walking and Walkability Interventions” Webinar (August 3, 2016)
The strategy mentioned that stood out to me the most was the importance of working with different social supports to really make walking programs work. Especially with kids walking to school, so much goes into making that successful. Safety is an issue with that, because children cannot safely get to school unless the community and neighborhoods are a safe environment. Like you said, cooperation and coordination are important for these types of programs. I would think to make this work, maybe parents or other community members could volunteer to monitor the areas that children are walking from and provide guidance to minimize problems. Local police officers could also assist by directing traffic and monitoring the sidewalks. Another idea that I have read about regarding this issue is providing waiver forms in case of injury on the way to school. If the school is involved in the program, all precautions need to be made since they are partly responsible if something happens. Overall, these seem to be great programs when implemented correctly, especially with a strong and supportive community to help out.
I definitely agree with this! The perceptions of the environment in which the walking programs take place are extremely important to consider. If people perceive the environment to be unsafe, they will not walk outside. In addition, in order for a walking program to be successful, it is essential that the program has dedicated staff or volunteers. That being said, I think that community support is not the sole factor in implementing a successful program.
Another consideration to think about is the built environment. Rural areas tend to have less sidewalks which mean children are having to walk on the highway to go to school because in rural areas, there is a higher chance that the school is located on a highway exit. Also, rural residents have to deal with other factors such as stray dogs, and sharing the road with cars going at a higher speed. (see http://www.communitycommons.org/2015/05/new-rural-resources-from-safe-routes-to-school/ for more information).
If community organizations(social network knowledge base) worked with city planners(network infrastructure knowledge base), then these programs can be better implemented based on the built and perceived environment.