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HEALTH IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE
A REVIEW OF ITS HISTORY
July, 2007
Printable Copy
The Greater Flint Health Coalition is a multi-faced institutional, agency partnership of health providers, insurers, government, business, labor and the community whose mission is to improve the health status of the residents of Genesee County and improve the quality and cost effectiveness of the health care system in our community.
Coalition members include the following:
- Baker College of Flint
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan/Blue Care Network
- Citizens Banking Corporation
- Delphi Automotive Systems
- Faith Access to Community Economic Development (F.A.C.E.D.)
- General Motors Corporation
- Genesee County Health Department
- Genesee County Medical Society
- Genesee County Osteopathic Association
- Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce
- Genesee Intermediate School District
- Genesys Health System
- Hamilton Community Health Network
- HealthPlus of Michigan
- Hispanic/Latino Community
- Hurley Medical Center
- Mott Children’s Health Center
- McLaren Regional Medical Center
- United Auto Workers
- United Teachers of Flint
- University of Michigan-Flint
When examining the history of the Health Improvement Committee, it is important to understand why healthy lifestyles became a focal point for the Greater Flint Health Coalition and the work of the Health Improvement Committee since 1997.
On May 16, 1996 “The Lewin Report – Community Assessment Factbook (Genesee County, MI)” was released and its purpose was to provide analytical support to the broad coalition of community stakeholders (i.e. GFHC) seeking to fulfill the vision of an improved health care system. The community assessment served as a catalyst by providing the Coalition with the information needed to reach consensus on an agenda for the Coalition and health system change. As part of the “Lewin Process” each Coalition Board member was asked to identify four problems as identified by Lewin that they felt were a priority for the Coalition. As a result the following ten priorities were developed, they were:
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High quality, easily accessible, coordinated primary and preventative care is not consistently available.
- Low income families face compromised access to health care services
- Health outcomes for cardiovascular disease are poor and service utilization is high
- Health outcomes for cancer are poor and service utilization is high
- Maternal and child health outcomes are poor and specialized service utilization is high
- Health outcomes and quality are not measured, monitored, or disseminated
- Health outcomes for diabetes are poor
- African-Americans are particularly vulnerable to compromised access
- Health resource capacity/investments must meet changing needs
- Available medical technologies are not always used properly.
In October 1996, following the prioritizing process that lead to the ten priorities, Kevin Seitz, a Coalition board member, was asked to facilitate a discussion of these priorities. The “Seitz Process” highlighted that the ten priorities could be placed into four major focus areas. Those areas are:
- Health Status
- Access
- Quality of Care
- Allocation of Resources/Capacity
As a result of the “Seitz Process” the Coalition developed four ad hoc groups to further clarify how these issues should be addressed by the Coalition.
In April, 1997 a group met under the auspices of the Coalition to discuss the creation of a new task force combining the newly reorganized Greater Flint Health Coalition and the Lifesteps Steering Committee. This newly created Health Improvement Task Force was co-chaired by Trissa Torres, M.D., Director of Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, Genesys Health System and Tim McDonald, Manager of Corporate Health Promotion, GM Health Care Initiatives.
The original vision and mission statement of the Health Improvement Task Force was:
VISION:To promote new attitudes towards health & well-being which influence behavior and result in a healthier community.
MISSION STATEMENT:Improve the health status through health risk reduction by health education, health promotion and disease prevention strategies.
The group considered numerous health risks (including smoking, sedentary lifestyles, nutrition, blood pressure, cholesterol and safety/violence) before deciding to focus on sedentary lifestyles for health improvement.
At the same time the Health Improvement Task Force was in the process of forming and developing a vision, the board was going through a process of its own in which it was questioning the overall structure of the organization and activities (September ’97 board retreat). The board was seeking from all committees/task forces a more focused approach for each group with measurable outcomes. As a result the “Call to Action” was presented to the Board in November 1997 and the business plan was developed. The “Call to Action” proposed the development of four standing committees (to work on the four focus areas listed above). Each of the four committees were to be chaired by a board member. The Health Improvement Task Force was elevated to Committee status and Henry Gaines, Regional Coordinator, GM UAW Health Care Initiatives became chair.
The “Call to Action” offered three possible
outcome options for the Health Improvement Committee:
- Reduce the proportion of residents who do not exercise in Genesee County from 28% (Lewin 1989 – 1993) to 15% (Healthy People 2000 objectives).
- Develop and implement
a “Flint Exercise Award”.
First presentations in 3/99.
- Develop a major, coordinated
health education program for the community.
It was concluded that the Committee would agree upon an outcome option within two months of the “Call to Action” presentation. On February 16, 1998, the Board of Directors approved the following outcome option of the Committee:
ONE YEAR GOAL:A 10% reduction in sedentary lifestyles in specifically targeted populations within the Greater Flint Health Coalition.
THREE YEAR GOAL:To reduce the proportion of residents in Genesee County who are sedentary by 10%. The Michigan Behavioral Risk Factor Survey indicates 55% of Genesee County residents are sedentary. The targeted 10% reduction in residents who are sedentary would reduce the rate to 49.5%.
Recognizing that behavior changes are difficult and everyone has a role to play to help decrease sedentary lifestyles, the Committee spent much of its early meetings developing a document entitled “Intervention Options to Promote Physical Activity”. The purpose of this document was to assist the various coalition “sectors” in implementing different intervention options that would complement the Committee’s work in reducing sedentary lifestyles. The Intervention Options document is a menu of choices of involvement for promoting physical activity among participating member organizations and their constituents. This approach to “sector” interventions was very pivotal to the work of the Committee and also in influencing the future work of the Coalition.
Every individual is influenced directly or indirectly by each sector represented in the Coalition: as an employee, a subscriber or member of an insurance plan, as a patient, a community member, a church or organization member, a voter, possibly a parent of a school-aged child. Thus, each sector can use its influence to help reinforce the message and support the behavior that physical activities are an essential part of health and daily functioning. The Committee focused on the five interventions:
- reinforce the message
- support behavior change
- integrate with other efforts
- monitor and report
- role model
The principle purpose of the Committee activity is to ascertain an approximate level of sedentary lifestyles in Genesee County, initially beginning with the member organizations of the Greater Flint Health Coalition, which at that time included Genesys Health System, Hurley Medical Center, McLaren Regional Medical Center, City of Flint, Blue Care Network, Genesee County Health Department, General Motors Corporation, United Auto Workers (through Lifesteps), United Teachers of Flint, Genesee Intermediate School District, and Faith Access to Community Economic Development. A baseline survey utilizing a single question regarding level of physical activity was conducted with the participating member organizations during the first quarter of 1998. The question was:
In the average week, how many times do you engage in physical activity (exercise or work which is hard enough to make you breathe more heavily and to make your heart beat faster) that is done for at least 20 minutes? Examples include brisk walking, running and heavy labor, e.g., chopping, lifting, digging, etc.
Less than 1 time per week
1 or 2 times per week
3 times per week
4 or more times a week
Coalition member organizations that already assess physical activity of their employees and/or target populations collected the baseline information via a Health Risk Assessment (HRA). Member organizations that did not measure sedentary lifestyles for their employees and/or target population utilized the one-question survey above.
With the baseline information, the Committee set a goal to reduce the rate of sedentary lifestyles of the Coalition’s member organizations by 10% in 1999 and of the entire county by 10% in 2001.
In order to improve upon the 1998 sedentary lifestyles study baseline results and meeting its one year outcome goal, the Committee designated “point persons” to interact and collaborate with member organizations to stimulate physical activity within those organizations.
During the last quarter of 1998, member organizations that participated in the 1998 baseline survey on sedentary lifestyles were asked to resurvey their constituents via organization Health Risk Assessments or the one-question survey sometime during the first quarter of 1999 with a tentative completion date of March 12, 1999. The purpose was to obtain follow up information from member organizations to again determine the level of sedentary lifestyles within member organizations and assess improvement in physical activity and measure against the first year goal of a 10% reduction in sedentary lifestyles. The data collection process was not completed until May 1999 due to individual organizations’ committed timelines for HRAs, health screenings, etc.
Results of the two years are as follows:
In 1998, 104,446 individuals were surveyed with 45,113 responding. In 1999, 104,988 individuals were surveyed with 45,113 responding. Participating organizations were: Bendle Public Schools, Blue Care Network, City of Flint, F.A.C.E.D., Genesee County Health Department, Genesys Health System, Genesee Intermediate School District, GM UAW Lifesteps, Hurley Medical Center and McLaren Regional Medical Center.
The resurvey in 1999 indicates that people reporting leading sedentary lifestyles defined as exercising 1-2 times a week or less increased from 48.7% in 1998 to 50.2% in 1999. However, people reporting exercising 1 or less times a week was 21.2% in 1998 and increased to 22.8% in 1999. The number of people exercising 3 or more times per week increased over the two years.
In conjunction with the “Interventions Options” document, the committee spent a great amount of time developing its very successful “Just a Bit Gets You Fit” media campaign. Throughout 1998 the Committee discussed how to disseminate the message of promoting exercise out into the community. A Communication Plan Strategy was developed to outline the strategies the Committee would take in promoting physical activity in the community.
In early 1999, Karl Olmsted (Olmsted Associates) and Todd Haight (Todd Haight Communications) were invited to the Health Improvement Committee meeting to give a proposal for the Communication Plan, which was to include budgets for the campaign, goals, strategies, target audience, and a campaign overview. The Committee agreed to use Karl Olmsted Associates and Todd Haight Communications for this campaign.
The next few months were spent developing campaign materials, all focused on the Surgeon General’s recommendation of accumulating 30 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week. Posters, payroll/bill stuffers and the “101 Easy Ways to Better Health” brochure were developed, along with print ads and articles.
At the September 13, 1999 Board of Directors meeting, the Board of the Coalition agreed to contribute $50,000 to the media campaign, with the plan to leverage an additional $50,000 in donated media time to have a $100,000 campaign budget.
In November 1999, the Health Improvement Committee hosted a media summit in which all the major media outlets were invited. The invitation to this media summit was signed by Coalition board members of those health care organizations in the community with major media budgets. This media summit served as the official kickoff event for the one year (November 1999 – November 2000) “Just a Bit Gets You Fit” campaign. The summit was very successful in leveraging media time, with commitments being made for outdoor billboards, newspaper ads and articles, and radio/tv spots. It is estimated that the Coalition leveraged between $75,000 and $100,000 in donated media.
Distribution of the “Just a Bit Gets You Fit” campaign materials included:
- 800 area physicians
- All Coalition members
- 200 community organizations
- 3000 area small businesses
in Genesee County through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Highlights of other campaign activities included:
- Mayor of
City of Flint declared June 27, 2000 “Just
a Bit Gets You Fit” (JBGF) Day in the City of
Flint
- U.S. Senator Carl Levin produces JBGF Public
service announcement
- Flint Generals (an UHL hockey
team) held a JBGF Night on March 22, 2000
- Campaign was awarded the Governor’s Council on
Physical Fitness, Health and Sports Getting Michigan
Communities Moving
Award Nomination Educational Materials of the Year
Award in 2000
- Sponsored a Crim (an international
racing event held annually in Flint) Festival of Races
One Mile Fun Walk.
- Participated in the Kids Crim Classic
- Partnered in hosting a “Community Health Promotion” conference
with University of Michigan-Flint and the Chamber
of Commerce. Purpose of conference was to improve awareness
and use of
wellness resources in the greater Flint area.
In response to a number of national studies regarding adolescent obesity, the original “Just a Bit Gets You Fit” campaign was extended in 2001 to focus on adolescents by funds totaling $49,500 contributed by Mott Children’s Health Center (whose mission is to improve the lives of Genesee County children and adolescents who are at great risk for not reaching their full potential by providing for their comprehensive health care needs through direct services, indirect services and advocacy within the context of family and community, and by joining others to promote the well being of all children in the county).
The extended campaign was tailored to adolescents and took on the name “Just a Bit Gets YOUth Fit”. New campaign materials were developed, including payroll/bill stuffers and posters, to use in addition with the original campaign materials.
Distribution of the “Just a Bit Gets YOUth Fit” campaign materials included:
- All Coalition members
- 200 community organizations
- 3000 area small businesses
in Genesee County through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
The YOUth campaign was extended by funds totaling $74,500 contributed by Mott Children’s Health Center in 2002. This third phase of the “Just a Bit” campaign was tailored towards providing nutrition information to adolescents; it was entitled “Just a Bit Gets YouTH Fit—Eat Good. Feel Good. Look Good”. Michigan State University Extension also partnered in this campaign.
Additional campaign materials were developed, including posters, brochures, wallet cards and water bottles. Distribution channels included:
- Coalition members
- 200 community organizations
- Genesee Intermediate School
District and Flint Community Schools (both played major
parts in distributing
information to students)
Media for this phase of the campaign included:
- Busboards
and billboards
- Public service announcements on radio
and television
- Advertisements placed in local newspapers
and organization newsletters
The Health Improvement Committee once again participated in the Kids Crim Classic in 2002. The Committee also supported the Boy Scouts Annual Hike-A-Thon event in April 2002.
At the February 2001 Board of Directors retreat, the Board placed smoking on its list of top priorities and felt that the Health Improvement Committee would be the most appropriate committee within the Coalition to examine the issue of smoking and its impact on healthy lifestyles. With this decision, the Committee invited the Smoke-Free Multi-Agency Resource Team (SMART) Coalition to give a presentation on the area’s anti-smoking activities and also to make recommendations to the Committee as to which area would be most appropriate for the Coalition to work in.
Ranking 39th nationally, 25.1% of Michigan’s population smokes. There are 15,786 annual deaths from smoking, with 14.1 years of potential life lost. Medical costs related to smoking in 1993 were $1.9 billion ($532 million in Medicaid expenditures alone).
Michigan received $301 million in tobacco settlement money in 2001 and $604 million in cigarette tax revenues. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that for an effective tobacco control program, Michigan should spend between $55 - $155 million annually. The total state tobacco control funding for 2001 was $6.6 million (ranking 40th nationally).
CDC’s best practices for tobacco control programs include: community programs, chronic disease programs, school programs, enforcement, statewide programs, countermarketing, cessation programs, surveillance and evaluation, and administration and management.
Of the CDC’s 9 best practices, Michigan and Genesee County’s weakest piece is countermarketing. Michigan has had poor tobacco media campaigns because of successful tobacco industry lobbying in the State. In Genesee County, the SMART Coalition funding cannot be used for paid advertising.
Massachusetts, California, Arizona and Florida all have lower smoking rates than Michigan, which they credit, in part, to their quality advertising programs. The CDC recommends that a state the size of Michigan should be spending between $9-$30 million annually on media, yet the entire tobacco control program for Michigan is only $6.6 million.
The SMART Coalition made the following recommendations to the Committee:
- The #1 gap to fill and the biggest need at this time in Genesee County is a comprehensive media campaign. The program could include: paid television, radio, print and billboards, focused message on environmental tobacco smoke, use of previously created successful spots from other states and the addition of a local flavor.
- The next three areas in need of work
in order of priority recommendation are:
- 24 Hour Smoke Free Campuses
- Smoke Free Worksites
- Smoke Free Restaurants
With these recommendations, the Health Improvement Committee felt it might have the most success and impact with a comprehensive media campaign (due to its past success with the “Just a Bit” campaigns).
The Committee chose to submit a grant application to the Ruth Mott Foundation to seek funds for such a campaign. The idea of the campaign, entitled “Smoke Free Genesee” is to promote a smoke free community. However, the issue of smoking was not a target giving priority for the Ruth Mott Foundation and the proposal for “Smoke Free Genesee” was not funded by the foundation.
On July 31, 2002, over half of the Health Improvement Committee attended a half day retreat at the Genesys Conference and Banquet Center to refocus its efforts. At the retreat, a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (S.W.O.T) analysis was performed and six primary focus areas were created. The six focus areas included:
- Cultural Opportunities: Identify cultural diversity training opportunities (i.e. “Undoing Racism) for HIC members; contact International Institute and stakeholders in the National Kidney Foundation “Healthy Hair” campaign to further explore health related opportunities and possible barriers to current Genesee County health improvement program offerings; and identify low-income groups and representatives from Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD), Family Independence Agency (FIA), Faith Access to Community Economic Development (F.A.C.E.D), Churches, and Genesee County Community Action Resource Department (GCCARD) to help identify barriers to participation in health related activities, and provide suggestions to increase involvement and specific activities designed to engage our low-income population.
- Partnership/Collaboration: provide HIC members with key event’s/activities/programs taking place in their respective organizations and/or community; assess events for greater HIC promotion and/or involvement to achieve GFHC goals; and integrate the Smoke-free Multi-Agency Resource Team (SMART) Coalition resources.
- Youth: contact GISD, F.A.C.E.D., and Mott Children’s Health Center’s “Tuuri Day” health conference officials to identify health topics and programs that HIC members can share regarding resources, educational/instruction opportunities on fitness, nutrition and tobacco; and develop HIC sponsored “team-leader tool kit” to stimulate youth interest in health related activities.
- Celebration of Fitness/ Maximize Image of CRIM: explore need for promoting current/expanded CRIM events and engage GFHC board in actively promoting/participating in the events; explore opportunities to create yearlong CRIM training and/or quarterly events versus annual event including “Maintain Don’t Gain Campaign in December, Eating for Energy Month in March and Physical Activity Day in May”; and sponsor awards/recognition system to acknowledge the efforts of Genesee County organizations' involvement in health and fitness related activities.
- HIC Goal Integration: ensure that above initiatives integrate physical activity, nutrition and smoking cessation information and resources as part of efforts. (NOTE: Committee members stated that stress management should be added to this catergory.)
- Measurement: utilize the Prevention Research Center of Michigan’s Community Survey to measure our impact; and track volume of materials distributed, initiatives, participation, etc.
The issue of smoking, while it made the list of priorities, was not deemed a top priority of the Committee and was incorporated into other priorities.
The Committee continued to focus on the six main priorities throughout 2003 by sharing information of activities done by different organizations, and trying to identify projects to pursue.
In June of 2004, the Committee began to look at how the success of “Just a Bit Gets You Fit and YOUth Fit”, and other programs have allowed the Greater Flint Health Coalition and its Health Improvement Committee to build credibility amongst the three foundations in the community. At the same time, the Ruth Mott Foundation expressed interest in funding programs dealing with health promotion building upon a concept called the “Active Living by Design Movement.” (“Active Living by Design” is a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that has the goal of increasing physical activity through community design). For example, constructing new walking trails and bike paths in areas where they can be easily integrated into citizens daily routines, thereby creating opportunities for people to become more physically active.
A subcommittee was formed with the purpose of developing strategic discussion points for the meeting with the Ruth Mott Foundation. The subcommittee was chaired by Charlie Estey, a consultant for General Motors Lifestep, a wellness group created to raise the health status of GM workers, and the subcommittee’s members consisted of those from the Health Improvement Committee who had direct connections with the Ruth Mott Foundation or played a pivotal role in the proposed upcoming projects.
A meeting of the subcommittee was set up to discuss project ideas to capitalize on the active living by design movement and a subcommittee was formed to formulate six strategic discussion points to take to the meeting with the Ruth Mott Foundation. The six points were:
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Community Assessment—an effort needs to be made to get to know the community better and learn what the barriers are.
- Promotion of available urban resources such as a walk along the riverfront may help to encourage and increase physical activity.
- Develop an activity day event or theme.
- Behavior change in a Depressed Environment—if there is no access to healthy fruit and vegetables in the community, how can you change the eating habits of the area residents?
- Development of safer walking areas and discussions with community leaders on the need for safer areas to walk.
- Measurable Outcomes—will it be known after a period of time what the project has done and what has been accomplished? What are the areas that should be measured?
On June 17, 2004, the Ruth Mott Foundation expressed their interest in working with the Greater Flint Health Coalition in improving the health status of Flint residents by increasing the walkability of the City of Flint as well as increasing the accessibility to fresh healthy foods.
Following the meeting, a concept paper was submitted to the Ruth Mott Foundation regarding funding for the Flint River Trail project. The Flint River Trail is a paved multi-use trail along one or both sides of the Flint River from downtown Flint to Blue Bell Beach. The trail is approximately 12 miles round trip. The concept paper for the Flint River Trial Project addressed one of the Health Improvement Committee’s main goals of reducing the number of sedentary lifestyles in Genesee County by providing a safe area where people can engage in physical activity in an area close to their community. The Flint River Trail Project proposal would be broken down into different phases, Phase I included:
- Health Promotion
- Safe Use of the Trail
- Beautification of the Trail
The concept paper was approved and a full proposal was requested for the Flint River Trail project by the Ruth Mott Foundation. A subcommittee was formed, chaired by Health Improvement Committee member Theresa Landis, Recreation Services Director at University of Michigan Flint, to facilitate the implementation of the proposal.
Along the same line of reducing sedentary lifestyles amongst Genesee County residents, the Health Improvement Committee decided to partner with the Healthy Families Community Collaborative (HFCC) and Healthy Families Working Together (HFWT) projects. The HFCC and the HFWT were proposed parallel pilot projects conducted over a single year that focused on reducing childhood overweight through promoting healthy behaviors and healthy environments for children and families. There were two primary goals of the projects:
Goal I—Community Level Intervention: To cultivate community—level collaborations among providers of health programs aimed at youth and their families in order to improve the reach and efficiency of these programs and effect sustained environmental supports of healthy lifestyles.
Goal II—Family Level Intervention: To develop and pilot a family—focused primary intervention program to assist in the prevention of childhood overweight and related diseases; and to promote healthy lifestyles and health advocacy at the family level.
The HFCC and HFWT programs also offered potential solutions to childhood obesity, and a set of final outcomes.
Potential Solutions:
- Educate on healthier individual and family choices
- Recognize and try to foil environmental barriers
- Offer support for a healthy lifestyle
Final outcomes must result in:
- Increased physical activity
- Decreased sedentary lifestyles
- Healthy eating habits for youth and their families
The Health Improvement Committee was designated to develop the community aspect of the project. A subcommittee was formed and chaired by Trissa Torres, M.D, Medical Director, Health and Disease Management, at Genesys Health System. At this time, Dr. Torres also began charring the Health Improvement Committee as well
Both proposals for the Flint River Trail and the Healthy Families Projects were submitted in December of 2004, and both were accepted in April of 2005. Upon the funding of the proposals, it was determined that the two subcommittees would report back to the Health Improvement Committee with the progress of their work and plans. It was then concluded that the Health Improvement Committee would assist the projects in three ways:
- It will provide linkages and advise the subcommittees if they are missing any details
- It will provide guidance to the subcommittees
- It will serve as a distribution channel of information
In June 2005, Stephen Skorcz, President and CEO of the Greater Flint Health Coalition, brought to the attention of the Flint River Trail committee the lack of African Americans on the committee, while doing work within a community comprising of majority African Americans. He pointed out that in order to be successful, there had to be community input and involvement in the process. Many members of the subcommittee then attended the 2 ½ day “Undoing Racism Workshop” sponsored by the Greater Flint Health Coalition which deals with institutional racism. Following the workshop, the Committee began to understand the importance of expanding its membership to include more community members, specifically African American representation.
In July 2005, the GFHC Board of Directors decided to reinvigorate and readapt the Committee’s very successful “Just a Bit Gets You Fit” Campaign to reduce sedentary lifestyles for Genesee County residents. A concept paper for reinvesting in the “Just a Bit Gets You Fit” Campaign was drafted by the Health Improvement Committee and submitted to the Ruth Mott Foundation in October of 2005 and a final proposal was submitted in December, but funding was not granted.
A meeting with the Ruth Mott Foundation followed the denied proposal to determine the details of the Foundation’s health promotion focus. In this meeting, the Foundation informed the Committee that their interests were in health programs that would focus on neighborhoods where other Foundation activities were already occurring.
For the beginning half of 2006, the Health Improvement Committee helped facilitate the Flint River Trail Project and HFCC/HFWT projects.
In September of 2006, Jean DuRussel-Weston, Program Manager for the University of Michigan Health System presented on “Project Healthy Schools”. The project is a program for sixth grade students designed to increase physical activity and healthier food choices through cultural change. The program comes equipped with five goals for the students:
- Eat more fruits and vegetables
- Make better beverage choices
- Perform at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week
- Eat less fast and fatty foods
- Spend less mindless time in front of the television and computer
The program’s pilot project was implemented in Ann Arbor Public Schools with excellent outcomes. The Health Improvement Committee recognized the cultural differences between Ann Arbor and Flint and that the Project Healthy Schools program would be hard to replicate, but tying the new program to an older recognizable program, such as “Just a Bit Gets YOUth fit, would be the best way to implement it in Flint . It was voted on and approved that the Committee would pursue the opportunity to develop a Project Healthy Schools replication model in Genesee County.
In October of 2006, the final report of Healthy Families Community Collaborative and Healthy Families Working Together was produced. The report declared that both projects were successful. The Healthy Family Community Collaborative was successful in the sense that the process allowed organizational participants, (Healthy Families working together, Mott Children’s Health Center, Hurley Medical Center, Genesys Athletic Club, Flint Community Schools, and Genesee Intermediate School District) a forum to establish trust and in-depth relationships, which in turn allowed them to problem solve on many levels to improve the program quality, reach and effectiveness.
The Healthy Families Working Together Project was successful, because it taught families that may not have access to grocery stores with healthy fruits and vegetables how to participate in healthy activities to maintain a healthy lifestyle. At both the community level and the family level the participants were highly satisfied.
In January 2007, after initially planning Project Healthy Schools, the Committee decided that installing another program in the community without proper assessment would render an ineffective project. The Committee decided to table the project and pursue full assessment of childhood obesity efforts in the community.
At the same time, as part of Phase II of the Flint River Trail’s Beautification and Expansion Project, Needs Assessment and User-Intercept surveys were developed and analyzed by the Center for Applied Environmental Research (CAER). Focus Group sessions were also conducted during this phase. The results of these activities were compiled in the Flint River Trail Survey and Focus Group results report. The report outlined the views and thoughts of community members, in relation to the Flint River Trail, most notably:
- There is a general lack of knowledge and recognition surrounding the Trail.
- There is a lack of opportunities for use of the Trail.
- There are concerns regarding the safety of using the Trail.
Unlike Phase I of the Flint River Trail project, Phase II focuses less on physical construction and more on community engagement and input into future Trail activities. One of these activities includes a Flint River Trail Social Marketing Campaign. The Campaign will be developed using all of the information collected during Phase II of the project. The Health Improvement Committee has agreed to assist with the social marketing effort. Olmsted and Associates is currently developing a Social Marketing strategy for the Flint River Trail Campaign.
On behalf of the Health Improvement Committee, The Greater Flint Health Coalition has engaged Thomas Reischl Ph.D., Evaluation Director, Prevention Research Center, to develop a design for the assessment of childhood obesity efforts in the community in an effort to promote “Active Living by Design” and reduce sedentary lifestyles in Genesee County.
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