The Thriving Communities grant is a five-year commitment by Interact for Health, which operates under the Greater Cincinnati Health Foundation. It will provide $15,000 the first year to establish the program and get it off the ground. It will provide $10,000 the second year, but require a $5,000 local match and it will provide a $7,500 matching grant the third year. They will provide technical support in years four and five but the community must sustain the program financially by that time.
It was the second try to get a Thriving Communities grant here to fund programs to encourage residents to be active and make healthy choices.
“We had to choose a priority area and chose the active living option,” said Sharon Klein, director of Employee and Community Wellness at McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital and one of the co-coordinators of the effort. “Over time, we will develop strategies to address other areas as well. We thought we could engage the community to get traction.”
She explained that the hospital had done a community needs assessment several years ago and determined that mental health and obesity were two key community areas of need.
Amy Macechko, the Health and Wellness Coordinator for the Talawanda School District, was involved with the Oxford coalition and teamed up with Klein to organize an Obesity Work Group as part of the coalition to look at that issue.
The work group started meeting a year ago with members from many local groups and agencies with interest in the obesity issue, which is a national concern.
From that came the idea of taking a positive approach and looking at ways to get people more active.
The whole effort came at an opportune time as the hospital and Miami University both were offering employee wellness programs with opportunities for the community at large. Also in the past year, the city created a bike path on Spring Street and there are community hiking trails.
“A lot has been going on in the area in active living,” Macechko said, pointing out that the city has also been involved in a partnership with the school district as part of a Safe Routes to School initiative to encourage Kramer students to walk or bike to school as a healthy alternative to motorized transportation. “The coalition has had a long-term interest in substance abuse prevention. This will help drive interest in active living and have benefits in our community.”
Macechko said a community assessment will be a big part of the first year’s efforts as they look to establish a program, with Klein adding they will also create a social marketing effort as an early step.
Klein said they have already started efforts to raise the matching money needed in the second and third years.
“We are already talking to groups who will help,” she said, adding that they hope that support will be wide-ranging to bring in as many in the community as possible.
The work has been building for the past year as the local work group began considering the best way to approach, first of all, the obesity issue and then make the commitment to an active living theme.
By coincidence, Klein had been at a conference in Missouri and heard about an active community effort in Nevada, Missouri and decided to pay a visit there since she was nearby. She brought back to Oxford stories of that visit and the committee immediately began to consider using the blueprint created by Healthy Nevada, the organization there.
“It was awe inspiring,” she said, adding they decided to copy much of what the Missouri town had done. “Instead of recreating the wheel, we looked at the social marketing idea. We’ve had help. We e-mailed questions and they answered every one. We did not have to learn everything the hard way.”
Nevada held a contest to create a mascot, which appears at events around the community and the image is used to signify approval of healthy choices in food and many other areas, including restaurant menu items.
The Oxford group held a contest for school students to design a local mascot and the winner was unveiled at the October 18 program in the Uptown park followed by a community walk.
The mascot — Rox the Oxford Fox — was designed by Autumn Taylor, an eighth grader at Talawanda Middle School.
With the grant now in hand, the two women are excited about the possibilities for contributing to the health of the community and stress the Talawanda School District is the target area for the project, not just the city of Oxford as they seek to reach out to everyone in the district.
“I am so excited about the Thriving Community Oxford grant,” Klein said. “I think we will have a very exciting 2015, and this grant will open more doors for our community to live healthier. Amy and I have been in contact with Interact for Health about the next steps.”
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