Move with the Mayor: A Community Collaboration

The Move with the Mayor (MWTM) initiative provides city mayors and leaders with an opportunity to address their community's health and well-being. The purpose of MWTM is for a mayor to lead walks in various locales around their cities, improve residents’ and employees’ heart health, increase engagement in physical activity, and strengthen a community's culture of health. The City of Columbus, along with Ohio State and Office of the Chief Wellness Officer, coordinated four community walks throughout September. City employees, residents, and students as well as Ohio State faculty, staff and students were invited to participate in the walks. The poster will share the experiences and outcomes of the MWTM walks.

Description

The Move with the Mayor (MWTM) initiative, launched in 2017, provides city mayors with an opportunity to address their community's health and well-being. The purpose of MWTM is for a mayor to lead walks in various locales around their cities, to improve residents’ and employees’ heart health, increase engagement in physical activity, and strengthen a community's culture of health. The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention focuses on advancing health equity and the implementation of the ABCS (appropriate Aspirin use, Blood pressure management, Cholesterol control, and Smoking cessation) to prevent heart disease and stroke. The vision is to harness the power of collaboration to prevent heart disease and stroke, and to lead and encourage collaborative action among stakeholders committed to preventing heart disease and stroke. An overarching goal is to eliminate cardiovascular health disparities and achieve health equity. The National Forum recognizes that achieving health equity requires valuing everyone equally with focused and ongoing societal efforts to address avoidable inequalities, historical and contemporary injustices, and the elimination of health and health care disparities. MWTM, in partnership with the National Forum, encourages mayors across the nation to lead by example, walking with community members, which will in turn promotes heart health and physical activity for all Americans. The city of Columbus, along with The Ohio State University and Office of the Chief Wellness Officer, coordinated four community walks throughout the month of September. Leaders included the city of Columbus mayor, city of Columbus public health commissioner, and the university chief wellness officer. City employees, residents, and students as well as Ohio State faculty, staff and students were invited to participate in the walks. Two walks occurred on the east side of Columbus, one walk took place on the west side, and one walk was held on the Ohio State main campus. Each walk took place after business hours, and was approximately 45 minutes in duration.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Megan Amaya, assistant professor of clinical practice, Ohio State College of Nursing, amaya.13@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Berndatte Melnyk, chief wellness officer and dean, Ohio State College of Nursing

Keywords

walking programs, community partnerships, collaborating with city officials, improving heart health

Citation

Engaged Scholars, v. 7 (2019).

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1811/87297

Collections

Engaged Scholars: Volume 7 (2019)

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