Walk Georgia: Georgia County Government

Also Inside: SPECIAL

FOCUS: HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

www.accg.org

SUMMER 2014

ACCG

ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION Celebrating 100 Years of Advancing Georgia’s Counties

Walton County and Pragmatic Governance An inside look into one of Georgia’s fastest growing counties and ACCG’s 100th association president, Walton County Chairman Kevin Little.

SPECIAL FOCUS: HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

UGA Extension’s Walk Georgia Offers County Governments a Free, Online Option for Worksite Wellness Nearly 200 of Georgia’s county commissioners, administrators took part in the Wellness Walk at the 2014 ACCG Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration.

By Kathryn Schiliro, Walk Georgia Editor

Wellness Walk • Nearly 200 county commissioners, officials and administrators participated.

• Distance was a near two-mile loop that started and ended on Savannah’s River Street.

• Preston Little, of Walton County, whose father, Kevin Little, is chairman of the Walton County Board of Commissioners and ACCG president, was the first to complete the Wellness Walk.

• Area 4-H’ers assisted at the event.

• Commissioners were also given pedometers at the start of the conference to track their steps throughout the entire conference, up to the conclusion of the Wellness Walk, and prizes were presented by ACCG based on who had the most steps. Wiley Grady, a Thomas County commissioner, won this award with more than 78,000 steps by the end of the walking event.

SNEAKERS LACED AND pedometers clicking, commissioners and staff members from across Georgia’s counties gathered in the pre-caffeinated hours of the morning on Savannah’s River Street on Monday, April 14 to set an example for their varying constituencies.

Nearly 200 of these county officials took to the city’s downtown streets for a Wellness Walk – sponsored by UGA Extension’s Walk Georgia as well as The Coca-Cola Foundation, ACCG and Local Government Risk Management Services– as part of the 2014 ACCG Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration, to encourage physical activity among Georgians.

The nearly two miles under their feet at the conclusion of the event proved what these county-level officials set out to do: highlight the importance of physical activity, for themselves and all Georgians.

“They’re not just supporting people.

They’re getting out there and doing what they’re supporting,” said Marci Delcampo, an Effingham County 4-H member who volunteered to help at the Wellness Walk.

“They’re leaders. If they can do it, we can do it,” said Anna Morris, another 4-H member, from Chatham County, who volunteered at the event.

Georgia has one of the highest obesity rates in the nation, and the key to winning the fight against obesity in the state is local intervention, specifically at the county level, as that’s as close to home as the message gets. Walk Georgia, UGA Extension’s free, online program, is enabling state residents to take steps, literally, to improve their health.

Based in communities through UGA Extension, Walk Georgia encourages physical activity among state residents of all ages. Run jointly by Extension and the UGA SUMMER 2014 www.accg.org

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SPECIAL FOCUS: HEALTHY COMMUNITIES College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Walk Georgia is in its seventh year of providing residents with the opportunity to virtually “walk” the state through the use of an online physical activity log, allowing participants to track their exercise, and corresponding web-based map.

A free program, Walk Georgia is promoted and administered by Extension agents at the county level, and agents also provide assistance and oftentimes incentives for participants. A Walk Georgia blog and weekly newsletter, with recipes and information on varying wellness and nutrition topics, healthrelated apps and websites, and state parks, are also available to program participants and non-participants alike.

“We need to make physical activity a part of our culture and daily lives, through programs that are not dependent on a fee or a gym,” Murray said. “To me, the beauty of Walk Georgia is that it meets people where they are.

Because it’s a community-based program, there’s something in it for everyone.”

In an effort to further the fight against the state’s obesity epidemic, The Coca-Cola Foundation has partnered with Walk Georgia through a $1 million, three-year grant. This gift will aid Walk Georgia in achieving its goals of growing to 100,000 participants and decreasing the number of physically inactive residents in each Georgia county by 5 percent over the next three years.

“Supporting Walk Georgia is another example of Coca-Cola’s commitment to help people lead active, healthy lifestyles,” said Lori George Billingsley, vice president of community relations, Coca-Cola North America.

“This commitment starts with our home state of Georgia.”

“The partnership with The Coca-Cola Foundation is extremely important in

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Georgia county commissioners and staff complete the Wellness Walk, sponsored by Walk Georgia, The Coca-Cola Foundation, ACCG and Local Government Risk Management Services, Inc., on Savannah’s River Street. The event was held Monday morning as a part of ACCG’s annual conference, held in Savannah on April 11-15, 2014. Photo provided by Angela Rowell of Walk Georgia.

benefitting the health of Georgians, especially when it comes to promoting physical activity,” Murray said. “No single entity has the resources to address this issue, so we must partner together to help Georgians.”

Furthering the fight against obesity, Georgia county governments have leveraged Walk Georgia as a worksite wellness program, taking advantage of it as a nocost option to encourage healthy, active employees.

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Walton County has used Walk Georgia since its inception in 2008 as part of county employees’ worksite wellness program. Karen Fraser, Walton County’s human resources director, works closely with Walton Extension Program Assistant Molly Kimler to distribute and promote the program throughout all 37 county departments.

Kimler spearheads getting Walk Georgia information out to both the community and to individual businesses and agencies participating, including the Walton County government, sharing flyers and brochures on the start of Walk Georgia and how to get involved in the program. Fraser then sends a memo to department heads on the start of the program and distributes the promotional materials, which are no cost to the county government.

“You can see our employees are very involved in this program,” Fraser said. “Right now, the Walton Walking Warriors, a team of Walton County [government] employees, are in first place.”

Kimler incentivizes the program herself, offering prizes, from T-shirts to water bottles, to all participants in Walton County.

Effingham County 4-H volunteers shared information with and guided commissioners and staff along the route of the near two-mile Wellness Walk in Savannah’s River Street area Monday morning. Pictured are (left to right) Faith Jordan, 4-H program assistant; Hannah Weitman, Samm McDuffie, Marci Delcampo, Lexie Wells, Alex Parrish and Anna Paulk, all 4-H volunteers; and Connie Rahn, 4-H program assistant. Photo provided by Kathryn Schiliro of Walk Georgia.

In Washington County, Georgeanne Cook, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension agent and wellness coordinator for county employees, promotes Walk Georgia as the county government’s wellness program from the inside out, calling on a committee, with representatives from each department, to distribute information about Walk Georgia.

They meet monthly about different wellness-related topics, including Walk Georgia.

When it’s time for a Walk Georgia session – these 12-week statewide sessions occur twice a year, in spring and fall – the committee members post the materials for county employees, as well as residents, to see throughout county buildings and facilities. Washington County government runs a wellness program.

Employees record exercise, check-ups, anything they have done to improve their health, and the county’s 167 employees can use Walk Georgia as part of this program to record their physical activity. They turn in forms quarterly and winners receive cash prizes.

“We have used Walk Georgia as an incentive for them to go online [and log activity],” said Cook.

Liberty County started using Walk Georgia within their county government last fall, after a Facebook post by Liberty County Extension’s Kasey Bozeman about the program caught the eye of the county’s human resources specialist and health promotion leader Laura Troutman.

“I thought, ‘This is free, this is great!

We’ve done walking programs in the past,’” said Troutman on the decision to implement Walk Georgia. “We’ve done other programs

with walking that proved to be popular because they’re simple.”

“The Walk Georgia website offered a lot of tools for us to use, such as posters and brochures that were provided for free.

Kasey ordered those and got them to us,” said Troutman. “Having the wellness program, I have a weekly email and county employee newsletter each month,” tools Troutman used to further promote the program.

After a presentation by Bozeman, four of the county’s entities bought into Walk Georgia – Liberty County government, the City of Hinesville, the Liberty County Public School System and Liberty Regional Medical Center – and a community challenge was born.

Troutman touted the fact that all of the county’s residents were eligible to participate, not just full-time government employees. “It promotes families being active, which I can’t do all the time with my programs because I’m paying per user,” she said. Further, any kind of physical activity, not just walking, is eligible to be counted as part of logging exercise for Walk Georgia.

By the end of the session, Liberty County had more than 50 employees and their families participating in the program. “Walk Georgia opens the door,” Troutman said. “Anybody can do it, they just have to walk.”

■ Kathryn Schiliro serves as the Walk Georgia Editor. She can be reached at (706) 542-2956 or schiliro@uga.edu. If your county is interested in participating in Walk Georgia, you may contact Maria Bowie, Walk Georgia Program Director, at 706-542-3908 or mbowie@uga.edu. You may also contact Deborah Murray, Associate Dean for Extension and Outreach, UGA College of Family and Consumer Sciences, at 706-542-8877 or dmurray@uga.edu.

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