The town of
Environmental Change Initiation
In 1999, a park project began
in Mercer using seed money from the Missouri Heart Disease and Stroke
Prevention (MHDSP) Program, though funds
obtained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This project continued through 2001 with the
MHDSP Program, but as the citizens of Mercer
have indicated, the park continues to be a “work in progress”. They plan to continue to enhance the property
with both landscaping projects and the addition of sports equipment as funds
continue to become available.
One elderly woman was seen as
key to the success of the project.
Before her death at 107 years of age, Fannie Jones-McKinney donated the
9-acre parcel of land her family had farmed.
In doing so, she stipulated that a community park be built on the
site. The availability of this land
stimulated community leaders to apply for the seed money from the MHDSP Program, and it surely focused the decision to use
the money to build an exercise trail in a park setting. Also, the citizens of this community saw the
pathway to funds as starting with organizing a group to gather data on
availability of exercise facilities in Mercer.
The first phase was for the committee to conduct a survey to assess the
policy and environmental barriers to physical activity and healthy eating. The result of the community inventory was
that there were no options for recreation.
The first year of the park
project required the Mercer community to be inventoried to ascertain their perceptions of
the barriers in their community to physical activity and healthy eating. They also created a community coalition to
aid with the park project. As mentioned
in the above paragraph, a lack of recreation facilities was identified as the
greatest barrier in Mercer for physical activity. Years two and three of the project required the creation of an implementation plan, the
acquisition of additional outside funding for the park, establishment of
additional partners to facilitate the creation of the park, and the actual
building of a park from the ground up.
Mercer’s demographic profile
has some interesting health implications.
The age categories 15-24 years, middle aged (baby boomers) and older
aged adults seem to be increasing in numbers, with the percentage of the 65 and
older population a significantly large 20%.
These age groups represent high-risk cohorts for whom increased physical
activity and obesity prevention make great sense. Also of interest is that 41% of the Mercer
households were non-family units and 38% of all householders were living
alone. This could be relevant for the
social network dimension of the intervention, that is, physical activity
programs getting isolated people involved socially.
The community is small,
mostly rural, predominantly Caucasian (90% or greater), have lower than average
median household income compared to the State ($23,906 vs. $37,934), and
experience relatively high rates of families below the poverty level in
comparison to the rest of
Focused interviews conducted
with community coalition members, public health employees, the Rural Community
Foundation (RCF), and other Mercer residents asked about the genesis of the
project. Everyone interviewed knew the
story, and although the perspectives varied depending on roles played,
important themes emerged from the interviews.
Public Health Agency
Roles
People interviewed knew that
the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services started the ball rolling
toward developing the park. One
respondent said, “The Missouri Department of Health
had money that was available for us—it was through the Centers for Disease
Control—they, the state, received a grant as part of a state grant and they
wanted to make funding available to local agencies.” In 1998, the MHDSP Program received a grant from the CDC. Funds from this grant allowed the MHDSP
Program to support communities in making policy and environmental changes
to promote activity and healthy eating.
Mercer responded to an initial request for application to begin the
process of assessing and addressing policy and environmental barriers to
physical activity and healthy eating. In
the first year of funding, very small grants ($1,000) were awarded to the
county health department who worked in collaboration with local coalitions. Due to continued success, over the past five
years, the community was awarded additional funds totaling more than $25,000 to
continue efforts towards making their town and city more inviting for physical
activity and healthy eating.
Major Partners
In addition to the MHDSP Program, there were several major partners involved in this
project. These partners donated
financial support, materials, equipment and/or labor. The tables below list these partners. The first table lists those partners that
provided financial support. The second
table lists those partners that provided resources, what the resources were,
and their approximate monetary value.
Type (Federal, State, Local, Private, Other) Source Amount
Federal DNR-Landmark Local Parks Program $21,744
Local Rural Community Foundation $ 600
Local
State Conservation Department $ 2,000
Local North Mercer School $ 1,000
Local Farmers Bank $ 1,500
Other program resources donated for the project:
Description of resource Source of Donation Estimated Monetary Amount
Land Fannie Jones-McKinney $ 5,000
Landscaping Coons $ 500
Exercise Equipment
Light posts Grundy Electric Cooperative $ 1,500
Bulldozing Ron Stark $ 3,000
Sewer Lines City $12,500
School Exercise equipment, cash
Local volunteers Time, labor, equipment
City of
DNR Funding for development
Girnder’s Lumber Co. All materials were sold at their cost
Conservation Department Funding for development of outdoor classroom
Several respondents perceived
a grant strategy behind the MHDSP Program’s efforts. One community leader said it best “So, the
great thing about the cardiovascular health program, versus a lot of the other
things that the State does, is that they give you money not only to survey and
to identify the needs, but they give you money to address the issues.”
Another key supporting
organization was the RCF. The RCF does
not actually deliver programs, but it does fund projects. This organization, too, has a commitment to
community participation and views itself as a partner to the Mercer
coalition. One of the RCF administrators
put it best when he said, “We don’t deliver programs ourselves, we don’t
actually do a lot of that, so we try to help with the finances that we have,
and whatever time is available to give advice on other fundraising. Something that we did with the Mercer Park
Board, when they first got started, was some research on potential funders - potential public and private funders, and the Foundation
prepared a report for the Mercer Park Board.”
Results from the
Environmental Change
No formal evaluations of the
park project were done. However, in
revisiting the community in 2004, interviewing community members and observing
the usage at the park, the park project would
be viewed as a great success. In
addition to creating an environment that is supportive of physical activity,
the project has succeeded in stimulating additional activities, projects or
events within the community. For
example, Mercer’s community park has led to the development of several
children’s soccer teams and the park project brought all ages of the community
together to work on one common goal. The
park gave the community a sense of ownership in a very important project.
Opposition
The citizens in Mercer did not encounter opposition to their efforts. On the contrary, communities were very
supportive. From the notes taken from
the residents per interviews by the interns, everyone was extremely excited
about the grants and the possibility of having the means to improve physical
activity in their communities.
Lessons Learned
The major lesson to convey
through this study is that changes do not have to take an inordinate amount of
money, nor do they necessitate major undertakings in order to move communities
in the direction of becoming more convenient for healthy eating and physical
activity. The lessons this community
demonstrated are ones of seizing opportunities, maximizing partnerships,
creative use of funding, building on existing local assets, a dedicated staff,
and having fun. True, when thinking on a
large-scale basis, changing the eating and physical activity landscape of
communities seems overwhelming. What
this community succeeded in doing, however, is breaking the problem down into
manageable components and attacking these components with innovation and
energy, thus creating momentum and unearthing additional opportunities for
further pursuit which, in the long run, can yield the kind of massive community
change sought through this approach.
Submitted By
Linda L. Powell
Missouri Department of Health
and Senior Services
573-522-2865 Phone 573-522-2898 Fax