Working on Wellness Environments
Working on Wellness Environments (WOW-E) is a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension multidisciplinary community development program

Pilot-testing traffic calming, bike lanes, and crosswalks at Romeo T. Flores Park in Zapata

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After attending the Youth Planning academy held this summer, youth health ambassadors from Zapata County saw the opportunity to make improvements to their local park. Working with the WOW-E team, the youth health ambassadors conducted a basic site inventory and observations. The group was able to pilot-test crosswalks, curb extensions, a bike lane, a protected walking lane, and wayfinding. Youth ambassadors, law enforcement, and local park-goers noticed a change in vehicle speed once the temporary infrastructure was in place. Next, the health youth ambassadors will work with the WOW-E team to create a report to present to the county commissioner’s court.

The health youth ambassadors pilot-test was featured in the Zapata County News.

Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors to Improve Romeo T. Flores Park with 2021 WOW-E Community Challenge Grant

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Tell us what you think about the Pop-Up Demonstration and Romeo T. Flores Park. Let us know here: tx.ag/parkPopUp (Link will be open between 10/23/2021 at 10:00am – 10/25/2021 at 11:59pm)

The Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors are thrilled to announce they were selected to receive the 2021 WOW-E Community Challenge grant. These are community grants supporting increased physical activity levels and improved access to healthy foods in five Texas counties: Hudspeth, Maverick, Starr, Webb, and Zapata.

The Zapata project provides technical assistance to install temporary crosswalks connecting the Romeo T. Flores Park and activate unused spaces within the park. This offers multiple potential benefits, like increasing pedestrian and cyclist safety, encouraging physical activity, and increasing park usage. This will help Zapata feel more like a connected community by temporarily improving the park’s appearance and encouraging people to use the park more often.

Pop-up projects like this are an important part of community change because they are relatively easy, low-cost, and temporary. These sorts of demonstrations can serve as pilot tests for more permanent and future changes. Feedback from the community is essential for measuring the project’s success. With that information, the Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors can make recommendations to the County Commissioners encouraging similar projects in other Zapata parks.

With assistance from other community members and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Zapata County, the Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors will tackle this project from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 23-24.

“We are incredibly proud that Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Working on Wellness Environments selected the Zapata Health Youth Ambassadors to receive this grant, made possible with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Sammy Luera, Extension Health Agent. “The WOW-E Community Challenge is an initiative to jump-start community efforts utilizing policy, system, and environmental changes and we hope to see wonderful results from our efforts.”

The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension WOW-E Community Challenge funds local projects that have one or more of these four goals:

  • Enhance healthier food access and sales
  • Establish health nutrition and physical activity standards in community places
  • Implement efforts to establish new or improved active transportation

The challenge is part of the WOW-E work. They take a collaborative approach promoting increased physical activity levels and improved access to healthy foods. This project prioritizes local solutions and transformative change to health-related challenges in Texas communities. To learn more about the WOW-E Community Challenge, visit wowe.tamu.edu/pse/wowecc. 

Rise & Grind Zapata Challenge

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Zapata County Health Agent, Sammy Luera hosted the Rise & Grind Bike Challenge in Zapata county. Local participants were encouraged to ride their bikes to local coffee shops in the area. The Working on Wellness Environments team supported this effort by providing an online community assessment. The assessment created was used to assess the local environment for walkability and bikeability. Information gathered will be used to help guide local programming, outreach, and planning efforts. Those who participated were able to inform the WOW-E program about their perceptions of biking and walking in Zapata county.