One of the many benefits the Campaign offers is free technical assistance to help advance your municipality’s policy goals. Campaign staff provide help with drafting and reviewing policies in the areas of active community, healthy food access and worksite wellness.

To utilize free technical assistance or report policy advancements, please contact Julie George at juliegeorge@livewellcolorado.org or 720-353-4120.

Ted Heyd is Regional Policy Director for Bicycle Colorado. In this role he collaborates with a wide range of elected officials, staff, and citizens to provide education and promotion around policies, projects, and programs to advance walking and biking. Ted is part of a team that is currently providing technical assistance to 10 communities along the Front Range under the Walk & Wheel grant program. He is advising on bicycle/pedestrian master plans, protected bike lane demonstration projects, and overcoming political hurdles to reach implementation. Ted has 15 years experience in the field of urban and regional transportation planning and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).

Wendy Peters Moschetti founded WPM Consulting in May 2009. WPM works with rural and urban communities to develop and implement community food assessments that lead to changes in policies, projects, and partnerships to improve access to healthy foods. WPM also works closely with LiveWell Colorado and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to develop and implement assessment tools, policy guidance, and trainings to promote healthy foods systems. This includes providing guidance on food access data collection and policy development for municipal participants in the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign. WPM also provides staff support for the Colorado Food Systems Advisory Council and coordinates the new Colorado Food Policy Network, comprised of 20 local and state food systems coalitions. To inform all of these efforts, WPM often partners with Colorado State University, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, and other institutions to bring together agriculture, public health, anti-hunger and other sectors.

As the Healthy Workplace Technical Assistance Provider for the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign, Liz is helping municipalities – both large and small – with various aspects of employee wellness, including  1) conducting health interest surveys, 2) creating healthy meeting policies,  3) creating active environments, 4)  structuring wellness committees, 5) formalizing year-long incentive programs, 6) getting recognition, and more.   Liz relates well to municipalities in this campaign, as she started and coordinated the comprehensive wellness program for Larimer County, CO for six years, before starting her own business, Well Simplified LLC.  She understands the need for making wellness simple, solid, and sustainable – and does all she can to help employers with such efforts.

The city of La Junta joined the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign in May 2014 with a focus on redoubling efforts to create an active community, and far better access to good food. La Junta’s resolution also explicitly pledged to start the hard work in an area where it had meaningful influence -- with its own city employees. Municipalities are often one of the largest employers in rural Colorado, and efforts from employee wellness programs to healthy food at meetings and walking challenges can start the influential core of a town in the right direction.

With the pledge to improve worksite wellness, La Junta utilized the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign technical assistance to have a healthy worksite analysis done. With help from the Campaign, the city is in the midst of creating a wellness committee, focused on the priorities that employees outlined in a healthy workplace survey provided by the Campaign. One area the city has already realized gains is in walking. Of 140 city workers, 58 percent are participating in the wellness program. The city began a walking challenge last fall. It started with 25 and this winter reached 58 people. Those participating wear pedometers and meet three times a week for walking-talking sessions. To keep the momentum going, in the winter they walk inside the warm senior center rec room. In the current 12-week session, many of the employees will walk the distance to Grand Junction.

The city is also taking the walking culture to the community, recently issuing a walkability survey, asking residents where they walk and why, and also where they don’t walk and why, looking for barriers that can be overcome. Do your kids not walk to school because of a bad sidewalk or a scary dog? Does your grandmother not walk to the grocery store because of a dangerous street crossing? Identifying the problem can lead to a policy solution.

Town leaders are most excited about a grant for a trails master plan. Potential connections are many -- the Arkansas River rolls on the north edge of town, and the arroyos make natural paths to the riverwalk. To the northeast, Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site draws national visitors to quiet meadows and marshes thick with birds. The regular stop of an Amtrak passenger train creates the need and the opportunity for 15-minute walking loops linking passengers to city commerce.

The city is eager to make its wellness program more formal and sustainable. At the moment, those signing up for wellness receive four hours’ paid time off. More incentives could help. For example, if employees agree to at least three of five elements of a wellness program, they might receive a health insurance price break, or a pre-loaded gasoline or Wal-Mart card. With more formal records of wellness program success, the city’s self-funded insurance plan might also find future savings of taxpayer dollars.

Follow La Junta’s lead and utilize the technical assistance expertise available from the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign to help take your community to the next level. We can help your municipality map out healthy workplace needs and next steps, understand your healthy food environment and/or strategize on ways to increase access to active living.

In February, the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign released a request for proposals to Campaign participants to receive a food environment assessment. Response to the RFP was great and we are excited to announce that the cities of Lakewood and Northglenn have both been awarded a food environment assessment. The two municipalities will work with Wendy Peters Moschetti to better understand their food environments and determine policy, systems and/or environmental changes the city can make to improve access to healthy food for residents. Congratulations Lakewood and Northglenn!

Jane’s Walk - Walk2Connect is teaming up with DRCOG to host the 2015 Jane’s Walk@5280. Jane’s Walk is an annual, internationally-coordinated 3 day walking event the first weekend of May. Free walks led by and across the metropolitan area will provide opportunities for people to gather and engage in conversations about the places they love to live/work/play/learn.

We are aiming to have 30 to 40 walks on May 1-3. These walks can be any duration, any location and any topic that relates to community. Below are four ways your municipality can help make Jane’s Walk 5280 a success and compliment your HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign active living efforts:

Encourage Walking Trip Leaders: Jane’s Walks are truly meant for anyone with inspiration to be encouraged and supported to lead a walk! By asking your supporters to host a walk, you are creating meaningful opportunities for people to learn more about how your municipality contributes to the walking movement.

 Outreach: Each Jane’s Walk and the entire event are dependent on folks attending walks. Please let us know if you’re willing to help with outreach and communications to connect people with walks.

Contributions: Financial contributions will go towards paid media and t-shirts for walking trip leaders if those aren’t donated. In-kind contributions can include: t-shirts for walking trip leaders [approximately 25], printing and give-aways.

If you are interested in leading a walk, below are instructions to add your walk to the Jane’s Walk 5280 event.
1. Click on www.JanesWalk5280.org
2. Check out the walks already added
3. Click on “create a walk”
4. Complete the form [it’s pretty easy…]
5. Save & Publish!
If you encounter any difficulties, please contact Rachel Grace Hultin.

American Heart Association Fit-friendly Worksite Award
The American Heart Association (AHA) recognizes employers who go above and beyond when it comes to their employees’ health. As a member of the HEAL Cities & Towns Campaign, your municipality is well positioned to be designated as a Fit-friendly Worksite. The Fit-Friendly program recognizes employers who champion the health of their employees and work to create a culture of physical activity and health in the workplace. Worksites can apply on an annual basis for our basic Gold level recognition and/or our advanced Platinum level recognition. In addition, worksites can apply annually for our unique “Innovation” award. These are awarded to worksites that creatively implement programs to promote physical activity in the workplace and/or community.  Also available for free through the program are:

Employee resources, such as the Activity Tracker, walking and exercise programs, and healthy eating resources

Materials to help promote your wellness programs to employees, including the free Worksite Wellness Kit

A quarterly workplace wellness e-newsletter with content you may use in your own newsletters with tips for your employees that you may use in your own newsletters or email communication.

Funding Opportunities:
Visit the LiveWell Colorado Funding Opportunities Page for more information on exciting opportunities for your community.

April 16, 2015
11:00AM-12:00PM

It is said that culture eats strategy for breakfast.  If so, let’s make it a healthy one! This inter-active webinar will help HEAL Cities & Towns learn to:

1.  Create wellness policies,

2.  Capitalize on partnerships, and

3.  Capture better participation in their healthy workplace efforts... three crucial components of a sustainable workplace wellness initiative and culture of health.

Click here for more information and to register.