Healthy Communities Walking Program

The Healthy Communities Walking Program is designed for older adults of all activity levels. The Walking Program provides motivation and support for people who want to get moving toward better health by incorporating exercise into their daily lives. The program helps participants implement an outcome-based exercise regime in a structured and measurable way. The program creates a walking schedule for participants, starting with 30 minute walks, 3 times per week. The program consists of sequential milestones to track progress. The program also offers walking buddies, coaches, and motivational teams to help encourage and motivate participants. All participants are given a walking journal and log, where they can record their progress. The participants are also required to attend three in-person sessions, where body mass index (BMI), current activity level, and healthy days measures are recorded. The sessions occur at sign-up, at six months, and at one year.

The goal of the Healthy Communities Walking Program is to reduce the occurrence of preventable chronic diseases, especially those associated with being overweight, by assisting participants in setting up exercise regimes and encouraging healthy eating.

Over 650 individuals have participated in the Walking Program. Walking Program graduates have lost weight and report feeling better on a daily basis. In a program evaluation, it was shown that the average BMI of all participants decreased from 33.45 to 24.02 over a 14-month participation period.