Erie County Let's Move Outside! Recreational Passport Program

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Contact Information

Organization Information

Project Summary

Let's Move Outside! (LMO) is a recreational trail program that encourages physical activity outdoors. 15 trails were established throughout Erie County that are either wooded or urban, providing an inexpensive opportunity to get moving throughout our local communities. Points of historical interest are highlighted along the trail, which can be found in the LMO passbook, a guide that also provides you with trail length, difficulty, etc. Participants are encouraged to walk all 15 trails and locate a hand-painted trail marker, which holds a special passcode. Collect all 15 passcodes and participants will have the chance to win prizes such as a kayak or mountain bike. This prize component is key to LMO, as it influenced greater participation AND collected the number of those who participated after registering their passcodes for the prize drawing on the www.letsmoveoutside.org website.

Project Goal

The overall goal of the Let's Move Outside program is to increase physical activity in Erie County. Overweight/obesity rates are significantly higher in Erie County, so the focus is to provide residents with access to a free-to-public, open year-round trail. Emerging from First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign, the program is meant to encourage physical activity in a fun and adventurous way that would be enticing to many different populations. By providing residents with greater access to trails throughout the county, we hope to increase physical activity that will gradually decrease obesity and chronic disease rates.

Promotional Methods

One of the primary partners of the LMO program is LILLY Broadcasting, Erie and Warren County's primary television network (i.e. Erie News Now, WICU12, WSEE and CW). Media campaigns via television and radio were completed, and regular kick-off and wrap-up press conferences were held annually to promote LMO. Public Health interns were
hired through a local university to attend community events throughout the summer as a vendor to distribute passbooks, promo buttons, etc.

Project Challenges

When the program first came to inception, the intent was to have a 2-year implementation phase that would include promotion, seeking and applying for sponsorship, prize competitions, press conferences, website publications and updates, etc. Following year 2, the program would be adopted by the trail communities in which they reside. Maintenance of the program would dissolve, with the intent of becoming self-sustaining. This was not the case, however, as new partners emerged and the life of the program was much longer than anticipated. We have now entered year 4, but foresee this being the year of transitioning to minimal or no maintenance.

Project Results

As a result of the program, currently over 1,200 participants are registered on the www.letsmoveoutside.org website. This is only capturing the number of participants who registered for the competition, so we can safely assume our reach has been much greater. Numerous partnerships have opened up, with over 10 agencies sponsoring the program in some degree (i.e. in-kind work, monetary, volunteer, etc.). Due to the success of the program, an extension of LMO has been established, known as the artistic bike rack initiative. Locally designed bike racks are being placed throughout our trail communities, which reflect the heritage of that community.

Organization Type

Other

Types of Practices

  • Community

Target Age Ranges

  • All

Gender(s)

  • All

Race/Ethnicity

  • Asian
  • Black or African American
  • Hispanic
  • White or Caucasian

Project Service Type

  • Advocacy
  • Awareness
  • Communications / Media
  • Community Outreach / Community Engagement
  • Prevention

Project Content Area

  • Behavioral Health
  • Cardiovascular Disease (general)
  • Chronic Disease (general)
  • Health (general)
  • Health Equity
  • Heart Disease
  • Hypertension
  • Mental Health
  • Nutrition
  • Physical Activity

Project/Program Care Team Target Population

  • Health Educators

Counties Served

  • Erie

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