Active Living Program News
Active for Life Sites Set the Pace for Older Adult Active Living
Developers and staff of Active Living Every Day enjoyed valuable interaction with program providers during a recent Active for Life grantee meeting in Chicago. The third annual grantee meeting allowed participants the opportunity to learn and share feedback about their program implementation.
Active for Life is a grant program established to learn how to deliver research-based physical activity programs to large numbers of mid-life and older adults and to sustain such programs through existing community institutions. Funding for the program comes from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The Active for Life program has demonstrated great success in teaching older adults how to lead more active lifestyles through Active Living Every Day. The following are current Active for Life sites offering the Active Living Every Day program:
- Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio
- Greater Detroit Area Health Council
- FirstHealth of the Carolinas
- Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington, Inc.
- The OASIS Institute
At the grantee meeting, these sites learned how they could better utilize the ActiveLiving.info Web site tools to manage, organize, report, gather information, and network with other providers.
During the session, grantees also shared their thoughts, ideas and concerns with one another as well as with Active Living Every Day co-author Ruth Ann Carpenter and Michele Guerra and Michelle Maloney from the Active Living Partners program. These discussions focused on the following:
- Ensuring the sustainability of using Active Living Every Day beyond the grant period. Several of the grantees expressed the desire to continue using Active Living Every Day, and in some cases to expand their use of the program to other populations.
- Modifying the course materials to better meet the needs of older adults and disadvantaged populations.
- Enhancing marketing and recruitment efforts.
Diane Dowdy, deputy director of Active for Life, believes the annual meetings to be invaluable. She says, “Bringing together such a dynamic group of individuals creates a synergistic environment and enhances the learning from program implementation in local settings.”
For more information about the Active for Life implementation of Active Living Every Day, contact Michelle Maloney at (217) 351-5076 x2522 or michellem@hkusa.com.
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