In partnership with members from the Thomas Jefferson Health District, the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Martha Jefferson Hospital, Charlottesville Parks and Recreation, UVA Cancer Center, the Quality Community Council, Rivanna Trails, the United Way, ACAC, Outdoor Adventure Social Club, and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, ACCT is encouraging lifestyles that involve regular physical activity and will improve the health and wellness of our community residents.

Our observation was that Charlottesville has many inviting parks, playgrounds, sidewalks, and trails, but that these spaces are not being heavily utilized by people engaging in physical activity. Recognizing the essential relationship between physical activity, health and community design, the partnership set out to determine what materials, policies, and promotional changes might encourage active use of these public spaces. Supported by funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Martha Jefferson Hospital, our partnership uses qualitative research methods to determine how to make Charlottesville’s public spaces more vital and inviting for physical activity.

Project Milestones:

• In March 2005, the Active Living Partnership held four Focus Groups to explore ways to motivate and encourage low-income residents to become more physically active in public spaces. These focus groups targeted neighbors from Westhaven, 10th and Page, Orangedale, and Prospect, and asked questions such as

“Are there barriers (such as access and safety) to your usage of public spaces? How they might be resolved?”

• In April-June 2005, our partnership worked to incorporate the feedback from the Focus Groups into a Social Marketing Plan. The Plan outlines a messaging campaign and a list of possible programming/policy/physical changes that would encourage physical activity in public spaces. To read the Social Marketing Plan, click here.
  
  
• On October 2, 2007, the partnership kicked off its Local Motion campaign.  The campaign encourages active living in Charlottesville through innovative use of the print, radio, television, and web-based media. Online, the campaign includes LocalMotion.info, a website with resources and tips for biking and walking in the greater Charlottesville area. Ads in various media are designed to inspire and challenge the audience to become more physically active in public spaces by featuring

• Local residents of different ages, backgrounds, and sizes;

• Adults enjoying different types of physical activity; and,

• Local recognizable public spaces (e.g., city parks, Rivanna Trail, school playgrounds) as great places for physical activity and people-watching.

For more information about the Active Living Charlottesville campaign, e-mail Caroline Heins at ACCT.