Using a collective impact model to promote physical and nutritional fitness: The Fit NOLA Partnership

Introduction: In 2011, the City of New Orleans joined First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity within one generation. A year later, Mayor Mitch Landrieu launched Fit NOLA with the goal to improve the physical and nutritional fitness for all those who live, learn, work, and play in New Orleans. 

Methods: Fit NOLA operates under the collective impact model, in which the New Orleans Health Department serves as the backbone organization and coordinates the partnership’s movement toward the shared goal of becoming a top 10 fit city by 2018, the City’s 300^th anniversary.  Currently over 180 organizations from various disciplines are part of the Fit NOLA partnership, coming together to increase awareness, build capacity, and set standards. The Fit NOLA partnership is divided into six cross-cutting sectors: Business, School and Out-of-School Time, Early Childhood, Health Care, Active Community Design, and Community.  Each sector leads a sentinel project that promotes the overall Fit NOLA goal.  

Results: Among other projects, the sectors used interdisciplinary work to create a Fit NOLA Business toolkit promoting worksite wellness, develop a healthy vending policy for all City of New Orleans-owned buildings and facilities, and hold a series of community events centered on outdoor play and healthy eating. In the past year, Orleans Parish improved twelve spots in Robert Woods Johnson’s County Health Rankings. 

Conclusion: The Fit NOLA Partnership has increased access to options for healthy eating and physical activity by bringing together community groups and following the collective impact model.