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Promoting Physical Activity in Your Community
By: Kendy Vierling, Ph.D.
Promoting physical activity in your community can seem like a large, daunting task. However, with neighborhood cooperation and communication with your local school officials, neighbors, and community leaders, parents can take the lead in increasing the physical activity of their children and promoting overall health.
With the rise of obesity in children, parents need to not only monitor the eating habits of their children, but also enable their children to be physically active. The new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) dietary guidelines are different than previous recommendations in that they place an importance on daily physical activity in addition to specific food recommendations. The new approach not only recommends types of foods that individuals should eat, but also balances the amount of calories that each individual needs to remain healthy with the amount of calories expended by physical activity. 
These new recommendations state that children and teenagers should be physically active for at least 60 minutes per day. For example, to accumulate 60 minutes of physical activity in a day, a child could skip rope for 20 minutes, ride a bike for 20 minutes, or play an active game with friends for 20 minutes. Adults should be physically active for at least 30 minutes per day. If you are active for a longer amount of time or engage in more vigorous intensity activities (such as jogging), you will have greater health benefits. This is especially important if you are trying to manage your weight or you are trying to reduce your risk of chronic disease. It is important to encourage children to be physically active because positive experiences with physical activity at a young age help lay the basis for being regularly active throughout life, which would affect the child’s overall long-term health.
There are a number of things that you can do to promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle in your community:
- Be active
Children observe their parents’ behaviors and often imitate these behaviors, including those related to physical activity. Try to build 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity into your day and allow kids to accumulate at least 60 minutes and up to several hours of age-appropriate physical activity each day. After work or dinner, take the family out for a walk, hike, or play active games together as family.
- Contact community leaders
Contact community leaders and developers to provide safe, accessible sidewalks or trails for walking and bicycling in your community. This makes becoming physically active safer, more accessible, and more enjoyable for everyone.
- Know your neighbors
People are more likely to venture outside to be active if they feel safe in their neighborhoods. It is understandable that parents may feel uneasy having their children play in the neighborhood if they do not know their neighbors or they feel that their children will not be safe. Therefore, forming neighborhood watch groups and knowing the people in your neighborhood may create an environment that will assist children in playing outside more often. Having a neighborhood meeting or get-together to discuss safety and encourage parents to take turns watching the children playing outside may not only assist in promoting an environment to encourage physical activity, but may also encourage cooperation amongst neighbors.
- Encourage children to walk to and from school
It can be difficult for many parents to allow their children to walk to school on their own because they are concerned for their child’s safety. However, walking to and from school can be a great way for children to accumulate physical activity during the day. Here are a few tips to help ensure that your child is both safe and accumulates physical activity:
- Before children walk to school for the first time on their own, parents should be well acquainted with the route that they will take.
- Know where they may stop along the way for friends or where they might stop to play. Know the address and phone numbers of the places that they may stop along the way.
- Know each street, intersection, and how long it should take your child to walk along the route.
- Be sure to discuss with your child important safety matters that may affect your child along the way.
- If possible, escort your child to school or arrange to alternate sharing this escort duty with a neighborhood parent. Again, knowing your neighbors and your child’s local classmates’ parents can be helpful in ensuring that your child walks safely to school.
- Children should walk with an adult guardian or parent. However, if it is not possible for an adult to escort the child to school, then ensure that the child walks with at least another friend- and the more friends that walk together, the better.
- It is important that the child walk with trusted others for safety reasons. Aside from the danger of strangers approaching children, a child may trip, fall, and hurt him/herself. A friend walking with the child can then seek help for the hurt child.
- Contact your child’s school to determine if it operates a Safe Arrival Program.
- Many schools across the country now operate Safe Arrival Programs for children in the elementary and junior high school levels. These programs contact the parent or guardian if the child does not show up at school by a certain time.
- This safe arrival concept can also be used when your child is walking home from school. A parent can tell the child that he/she is to call the parent when they are returning back home and should be at home by a pre-determined time, so that the parent knows that the child is on the way. Then, the child calls the parent when he/she is safely at home. If the child is minutes late or diverted, then the parent will know.
- Support before-school and after-school community programs
Support the development before-school and after-school community-based physical activity programs for children that are fun and developmentally appropriate. Help community or school staff in creating a positive environment where physical activity is accessible, safe, affordable, and fun by volunteering your time, if possible. These programs should be inclusive and also meet the needs of specific populations that may have disabilities. Parents can support these programs by volunteering their time and contacting community leaders about the importance of children’s physical activity. Activity programs, such as intramurals and clubs, may not only encourage children to become physically active, but also become active in the community in a positive way and form new friendships.
- Encourage schools to promote physical activity
Ensure that your child’s school currently has supervised recess during the day, before-school and after-school physical activity programs, encourages school staff to become physically active with the children, and encourages parents to become active in physical activity program implementation. If you find that your child’s school does not promote physical activity with these programs, contact your school and community leaders. Children are more likely to be physically active if they have fun and enjoy the activities, so ensure that the programs offered are developmentally appropriate and fun for the children. Children are also encouraged to be more physically active if they see their teachers and parents physically active, so take an active role in your child’s school programs, if possible. Some schools will even open their facilities for community recreation, so contact school leaders for specific details.
With these helpful tips, you can take the lead in promoting physical activity in your family and community. By initiating neighborhood cooperation, communication with your local school officials, neighbors, and community leaders, you can take the lead in increasing the physical activity of your child and promoting overall health in your community.
For more information about how to create a healthy youth sport and physical activity experience, contact the AIA Academy at contact@aiaacademy.org or (602) 861-6198.
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