November 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 34

H E A LT H & W E L L N E S S

PUBLIC HE ALTH AT WORK

hall meetings and other opportunities
for citizen input, the city made an additional commitment to develop a hike
and bike master plan by spring 2013.
This enthusiasm has spread to include public-private partnerships and
volunteer opportunities to support expansion of existing trails and development of new trails. Next steps for
the project include linking neighborhoods to schools and developing unused easements along drainage ditches
for hike and bike trails. Creative thinking and engaging many types of stakeholders is helping to create a culture of
walking and biking for Corpus Christi.
As citizens, local businesses, and local
planning efforts converge, the momentum to impact the health of this
community is picking up. A proposition that includes $1.5 million for hike
and bike trail development will be on
the ballot for voter approval in November 2012.

CASE STUDY 2
Philadelphia Transforms
Existing Programs By
Encouraging Physical Activity
When it comes to serving the community's youth, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has plenty of programs in place
within its system of 150 recreation
centers. Nearly 3,000 children participate in more than 90 formally structured afterschool programs throughout
the city. In the summer, that number
quadruples, with close to 11,000 youth
attending day camps. Program participants primarily include AfricanAmerican and Hispanic youth from
lower-income families, which reﬂects
the city's demographics.
But despite this level of engagement,
half of Philadelphia's children are overweight or obese. How can existing programs be improved to positively engage
youth in healthy behaviors?
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Parks & Recreation

" The kids kind of teach us how to play. They actively
participate...not even realizing how much physical
activity they are getting because they are enjoying
[themselves]. "
-Philadelphia Parks and Recreation

The Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department partnered with
the Philadelphia Department of Public Health to improve the quality and
quantity of physical activity, and increase access to healthy food in the
city's summer and afterschool programs. The result was the development and implementation of a new set
of standards and general procedures, titled " Healthy Physical Activity and Nutrition Guidelines-Philadelphia Parks
and Recreation-Afterschool and Summer Programs. "
The physical activity guidelines promote the following:
■ Supporting the well-being of youth
by ensuring daily moderate to vigorous physical activity
■ Supporting the well-being of youth
by limiting non-work screen time
■ Providing a safe environment for
play and physical activity
■ Providing equitable opportunities
for all youth to participate in quality
play and physical activity
■ Ensuring that safe, fresh drinking
water is available to youth at all times,
indoors and outdoors, including trips
off-site during program hours.
The parks and recreation department took action by modifying the
staff's administrative roles to ﬁt the new
guidelines, including more personal
engagement with kids and more structured play. These new roles required
staff education and training, resulting
in what the department notes as " leader
skill sets that have been enhanced, and

| NOVEMBER 2012 | WWW.NRPA.ORG

have boosted morale during a time of
challenging budgets. " Charts are used
to measure the hours of physical activity being conducted at program sites.
The initiatives created through the
physical activity guidelines have shifted focus to outdoor, community activities and prompted unique partnerships
to leverage collective resources. As noted by the Philadelphia Department of
Health, " Everything is neighborhood
and community driven. "
Philadelphia Parks and Recreation
has identiﬁed future leaders within the
staff and recruited them as " train-thetrainers " to support program sustainability and transform the culture of the
department. According to the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, " Staff are very enthusiastic about
the new interaction and activities provided by the new guidelines, and the
children have reacted positively because they are getting physical activity in a fun way. "
Guidelines for this program were developed based on capacity surveys of
existing practices and needed resources, and the early learning and successes
of the Get Healthy Phily partnership.
Also informing the process were the
Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities
Out of School Time (OST) Partnership,
and the National AfterSchool Association (NAA).
Erika Lehmann and Nicole Oehmke are
with Smith and Lehmann Consulting. For
more information, contact Zarnaaz
Bashir, MPH (zbashir@nrpa.org).

November 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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