Developing WeTHRIVE! Communities who thrive on Policy, System and Environmental Assessment, Planning and Implementation

Hamilton County Public Health (HCPH) partnered with municipalities within their jurisdiction to expand the work of a CDC-funded grant, Communities Putting Prevention to Work. For this project, forty-nine cities, townships and villages within Hamilton County were eligible to receive a WeTHRIVE! Communty mini-grant to develop policy and environmental changes that will promote or sustain healthy eating and physical activity initiatives. HCPH created and disseminated a request for proposals and developed a submission and application review process. Thirteen communities were selected. HCPH team included health educators and community outreach coordinators. Each community's team included residents, administrators, employees and elected officials. Selected applicants received $24,000, group training, one-on-one technical assistance and participated in bi-weekly calls over a seven month time period. All communities completed the Community-at-Large Sector of the CHANGE Tool; completed physical activity shared-use assessments, resulting in 13 formal Shared-Use Agreements, and the potential for future agreements; adopted official Wellness Resolutions; created and publicized a community-driven Action Plan; connected Action Plan to their community's Master/Strategic Plans and implemented policy, systems and environmental change strategies to address healthy eating and physical activity in their community. HCPH developed a model for building community infrastructure to begin to implement policy, system and the environmental changes to impact health. Communities began to recognize these changes are integral to their community members' ability to engage in healthy behaviors or participate in health-promoting programs and services. Communities were able to make connections within their jurisdiction and with other communities to maximize resources and enhance their health-promoting capacity.