Organizing an Effective Community-Wide Physical Activity Campaign

In Brief LEARNING OBJECTIVES Readers will be able to: 1. identify key community-based resources to assist with addressing the problem of physical inactivity 2. describe the five phases of an effective community-level physical activity campaign 3. describe strategies to assess needs, plan, implement, and evaluate a physical activity campaign in their community Many fitness and health professionals are now aware of the physical activity recommendations and how to help individuals meet them. However, they may not have had training in implementing programs to increase participation at the population level. This article explains how to implement community-wide physical activity behavior change campaigns in a cost-effective, comprehensive manner that may impact many people across an entire community or region.