 |
| Active Living by Design aims to demonstrate what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to increasing routine physical activity through community change. |
Making the Difference
Active Living By Design
Aiming to Make Exercise a Routine Activity
By Active Living by Design staff
A multi-year grant to Carolina from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation during the Carolina First Campaign continues to have impact in North Carolina and across the United States.
Active Living by Design (ALbD), a national program established by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is part of the North Carolina Institute for Public Health at the UNC School of Public Health. Launched about six years ago, ALbD initially focused on providing technical assistance and consultation over five years to 25 multidisciplinary partnerships across the country. Its goal? To demonstrate what works—and what doesn’t—when it comes to increasing routine physical activity through a comprehensive approach to community change. From its headquarters in Chapel Hill, ALbD has expanded its scope and now works with a variety of funders and their grantees to foster active living and healthy eating behaviors.
Physical inactivity plays a significant role in the United States’ most common diseases, including coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Each of these is a leading cause of death. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s mission is to improve the health and health care of all Americans, and its initial support of ALbD is doing just that.
Within North Carolina, ALbD currently serves more than 20 municipalities and counties through grant programs funded by the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund (the Fit Community Designation and Grants Program) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation (the Fit Together Grant Program). “These two organizations approached us after seeing what we were accomplishing with the RWJF-funded communities,” said Sarah Strunk, ALbD director. “We were excited by the prospect of helping to address these issues a little closer to home. We’ve learned a lot from these grantees—particularly what adjustments need to be made for this approach to succeed in rural areas.”
Outside of the state, ALbD is consulting with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota to help translate lessons learned and build capacity among its staff in support of a new statewide grant program. In addition, it is serving as the physical activity/built environment consultant for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s national Food and Fitness initiative. And soon, ALbD will begin taking its work to scale. Recently tapped by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to lead Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities, a five-year, $44-million program, ALbD ultimately will support 100 more communities across the nation. The focus? To help underserved and vulnerable communities at greatest risk for childhood obesity plan for and implement changes in policies, systems and environments that increase opportunities for active living and healthy eating.
Print
