Building capacity of community coalitions to implement multi-level interventions to reduce chronic disease

The Michigan Department of Community Health Community-Based Physical Activity, Healthy Eating, and Tobacco-Free Lifestyles Program is a three-year grant program designed to reduce cardiovascular disease and its risk factors in Michigan. The Cardiovascular Health, Nutrition and Physical Activity Section, with support from the Tobacco Section, provides grant funding, training, and technical assistance to local public health departments to work with grassroots community groups to assess their environments and find out how supportive they are of healthy lifestyles. Results from assessments are used to create action plans. Plans emphasize policy and environmental changes which have the potential to affect a large proportion of the community and make it easier for residents to be active, eat healthy, and not smoke. For the second year of funding, health departments were offered USDA Food Stamp Nutrition Education monies that were leveraged with State funds and provided in partnership with Michigan State University Extension. Health departments partnered with their local Extension offices to educate residents on healthy lifestyles and changes made in their communities. This partnership complements the overall program by targeting different levels of the Social Ecological Model, a framework recommended by experts for creating far reaching, sustainable change in communities. In 2005-2006, seven local health departments received funding to work with more than 30 community coalitions. Over 46 miles of non-motorized trails were created or enhanced and 10 new opportunities for access to healthy foods were created. These changes reached more than 142,000 Michigan residents.