Active Iowa is a community-based program created by the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center for Rural Health (UI PRC-RH). The program aims to promote, support, and sustain physical activity for adults in micropolitan communities. Active Iowa first began with Active Ottumwa, which saw success promoting physical activity for adults in Ottumwa, Iowa. Evaluation of the Active Ottumwa project showed an increase in physical activity among community members. To share the stories and success of the Active Ottumwa program, a 10-part podcast series was created.
To support success in other communities, programming materials were created for and with community leaders in micropolitan communities. Active Iowa materials are detailed below. These program materials are free to use. Click here to access a recording that provides an overview of the background of Active Iowa and the developed package of program materials. Our team is happy to hear from people who have used or plan to use these materials and what they think of them. Please reach out to the center coordinator, Heidi Haines, and heidi-haines@uiowa.edu to share your thoughts and experiences.
Materials:
Toolkit: This Manual of Implementation gives the program's background, evidence-based strategies that can be used, how to adapt these strategies to your community, and how to evaluate, implement, and sustain the program. The Manual of Implementation’s supplemental materials section includes links to resources that expand on content in the document. Detailed appendices in the Manual of Implementation include documents that show the reasoning for program implementation, as well as templates that support the implementation of Active Iowa, such as program trainings for volunteers.
Supplemental Training Videos: A series of twelve videos, each 5-15 minutes long, that include information on how to adopt and adapt Active Iowa to your community. The trainings provide details and expands upon topics within the Manual of Implementation while highlighting examples from the Active Ottumwa pilot project. This document provides brief descriptions of each video in the series.
Physical Activity Leader (PAL) binder: Clicking this link will download the training materials for the Physical Activity Leaders, including training materials for Physical Activity Leaders, including: a training to be adapted based on your program’s needs, templates for Active Iowa marketing materials, an example liability waiver, and several other resources that serve as a starter packet to get Physical Activity Leaders up to speed about your program.
Active Iowa Templates: A zip file of documents will download to your computer that you can use and adapt to the specific needs of your Active Iowa program.
COVID-19 Addendum: This tool provides guidance to improve safety of in-person physical activities during an infectious disease outbreak, like COVID-19. Supplemental signage has been created to encourage masking and COVID-19 and flu vaccination.
Virtual Addendum: This tool outlines options to lead Active Iowa activities in virtual formats and details further considerations for offering virtual Active Iowa programming. A playlist of virtual how-to videos have been created to support leading virtual physical activity classes on Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Google Meet, and Zoom.
Active Iowa Social Media Toolkit: This document provides example text to accompany created social media graphics for the Active Iowa program (for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram). These graphics and accompanying messages can help program implementers share information about the Active Iowa project and help provide updates of their program to the community.
Active Iowa Social Media Graphics: A zip file of images adjusted to fit the four types of social media platforms in the toolkit (Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn can all use the same file, while Facebook graphics are in a separate file).
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