Development of a Toolkit to Package and Disseminate a Successful Community Intervention: The Walk By Faith Program

The Walk By Faith Program, a faith-based physical activity and nutrition program funded through the Appalachia Community Cancer Network (ACCN) Community Minigrants Program, was initiated by ACCN community partners in Appalachian Ohio to address poor dietary habits and lack of physical activity among local community residents in five Ohio counties. This successful program demonstrated increased participant knowledge regarding physical activity, diet, and cancer, along with an increase in physical activity (walking) over the course of the six-week program. To build on the local success of this project, the ACCN developed a toolkit to be disseminated to other community partners who might be interested in replicating and adapting this church-based physical activity program in their own communities. The toolkit includes step-by-step instruction on how to implement the project and includes copies of all program materials, including pre- and post-assessment forms for project evaluation, activity cards to track number of steps and/or minutes walked, presentation materials regarding healthy eating and tips to increase physical activity, program recruitment flyers, motivational handouts, and certificates of achievement. All materials in the toolkit were developed in partnership with community members, pilot tested in the community, and refined as necessary according to community feedback. The toolkit has proven to be a useful, transportable product that diverse communities can use to implement and evaluate a faith-based physical activity program. The toolkit development process can also be instructive to community-based investigators who are looking to develop tangible products resulting from community interventions that can be easily packaged and disseminated.