Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together in an Active Living and Healthy Eating Micro-Grant Initiative

Background: Research suggests that when paired with technical assistance (TA), micro-grant initiatives are effective in catalyzing community change. Project results can serve as “small wins” that enhance community buy-in and lead to additional projects. There is limited research, however, about how this process occurs and what factors facilitate it. This presentation will describe how the features of a micro-grant initiative – projects to change policies and environments related to active living and healthy eating, partnership enhancement, and social media use – combine to leverage additional resources and support additional efforts.

Methods: Since 2013, 45 community partnerships in New Jersey have received micro-grants along with project and social media TA to implement policy and environmental strategies. TA included project meetings, site visits, monthly calls, social media user manuals and as-needed support. Results from three years of data collection, including grantee surveys, grantee interviews, and progress monitoring of project-related social media sites, were triangulated to qualitatively describe the relationships between the grantee projects, partnerships and social media.

Results: Grantees that made policy and environmental changes related to active living and healthy eating; used social media to raise awareness about local efforts, attract volunteers and enhance partnerships; had diverse community partnerships that were part of an existing larger network; and had strong leadership leveraged materials, supplies, staff time and additional funding to support their current and future work.

Conclusion: Community changes, social media use and successful partnerships combine to attract resources and spark continued healthy eating and active living efforts. Future efforts should focus on quantifying this relationship.