The first of October marked the end of the Move Your Way: Wyandotte County campaign, a program of the US Department of Health and Human Services facilitated by BikeWalkKC, WYCO Health Department, and the Department of Population Health at KU Medical Center.
The program, which began in December 2019, took a swift turn as the outbreak of the global pandemic caused a major shift in the planned outreach activities that were heavily dependent on social gatherings. We made creative methods for interacting with our target audience a high priority as community partners around the metro were concentrating on keeping up on daily health recommendations that seemed to be changing by the minute.
One silver lining that shone bright throughout this time was the encouragement by health professionals to keep physically active. What were supposed to be in-person events turned into virtual outreach opportunities and BikeWalkKC produced 5 videos that paired physical activity guidelines with pedestrian and bicycling safety information. BikeWalkKC also highlighted several community partners through virtual interviews that focused on how important physical activity is to their mission and programming. BikeWalkKC’s Safe Routes to School coordinator, Areiona King, created 3 physical activity BINGO cards that were shared not only metrowide, but with other communities included in the campaign pilot.
Participating in this project revealed several potential promotional strategies and outreach events for other local physical activity campaigns such as the Kansas City Physical Activity Plan. In all, BikeWalkKC engaged 11 new community partners throughout this effort, working with a total of 15 organizations. We are grateful for the work these organizations do for health and wellness in the Kansas City region, and we look forward to maintaining our relationships and continuing to promote physical activity through partnerships and programming.