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

Utilizing Communications to Increase Park Awareness

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By: Valerie Jauregui and Kelsey Coats

There are many reasons people might not use their local parks and recreation amenities. According to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s Urban and Municipal Parks program (UMP), some reasons cited by residents for nonuse are time, age/age appropriateness, proximity/connectivity, utilizing other resources, lack of knowledge, and usability (Walker et al.,2022). As practitioners, we cannot necessarily address some of these reasons (i.e., time), or they require additional time to address (i.e., proximity/connectivity). However, lack of knowledge is one barrier that can be reasonably addressed in the short term. The Working on Wellness Environments (WOW-E) and WOW-E communities have sought communication strategies to address the lack of knowledge of parks and public spaces for being active.

‘How do you Park’ communication campaign – Vernon, Texas

The City of Vernon Community Development department, Vernon Main Street and Tourism, and other partners identified a lack of knowledge of public parks, outdoor spaces, and ways to be physically active in the community. Together, they applied for the 2024 WOW-E Community Challenge to receive technical assistance to develop, plan, and evaluate a communications campaign to promote their local parks and physical activity amenities. 

With assistance from the WOW-E team, the local Vernon group attended WOW-E cohort sessions to define and analyze their audience, assess communication strategies to best fit their audience, complete an amenity inventory of all of the amenities available at their parks and public spaces, conducted community engagement to inform their graphics and messaging for the campaign, and planned their communication campaign and evaluation methods. 

The group kickstarted their campaign in May. Their billboard is currently running, and they have placed concrete clings promoting their parks around town. The group has also started posting on their social media profiles and will engage with their local community through messages, shares, and hashtags. The local team will continue to evaluate and monitor their campaign to gather feedback and responses. To learn more about these efforts, visit the City of Vernon Facebook page and the Vernon Mainstreet and Tourism Facebook page.

Concrete Cling (ground sticker) at local park
Concrete cling at everyday destination to promote campaign

WOW-E’s 2023 Active People Healthy Nation pilot awareness campaign

WOW-E collaborated with three communities in South Texas to pilot test a communication campaign to increase park and public space awareness for people to be active. The campaign was part of the CDC’s Active People, Healthy Nation effort to get 27 million more Americans active by 2027. Listening sessions found that an existing shared value among the audience was time with family and friends, which helped guide the campaign. Focus groups helped ensure that communication materials, messages, and imagery were relevant to the community. The focus groups also increased awareness themselves, as one participant said, “I did not know there were this many parks.”

WOW-E’s APHN awareness campaign ran for approximately eight weeks. The communication campaign consisted of billboards, social media posts, banners, ground stickers, bookmarks, amenity inventories, and maps of the communities’ parks and places to be active.  The campaign website included the maps and amenity inventories. Billboards included a short URL to the campaign website, social media posts included links to the campaign website, and ground stickers and bookmarks included QR codes to the campaign website. Social media posts, billboards, bookmarks, and banners were offered in English and Spanish. Different versions of the communication products ran in different communities. To read more about this effort, visit our blog! Interested in becoming a WOW-E community? Click here to see if your community is eligible.

Resources:

Walker, J.R., Lee, J., Gunderson, E., & Coats, K. (2022, September 20 – 22). If you build it will they come? the nonuse phenomenon. [Poster presentation]. 2022 National Parks and Recreations Association Annual Conference, Phoenix, AZ, United States. https://agrilife.org/urbanparks/files/2024/12/Urban-and-Municipal-Parks-2022-NRPA-Poster.pdf 

Celebrate Your Local Parks and Places!

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By: Valeria Jauregui

How many active parks and places do you think there are in Rio Grande City? Did you know there are at least 17? Did you know the city of Roma has at least three? Parks, schools, plazas and paths can provide most people with a place to be active and spend time with family and friends.

Many people do not know about all the parks in their communities—even in smaller communities. According to Jamie Rae Walker, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension associate professor and urban and municipal park specialist, research says lack of knowledge is one of the barriers people report for why they don’t visit their local parks and active places.

Roma, Rio Grande City, and the city of Eagle Pass are working with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s Working on Wellness Environments (WOW-E) program to tie into the CDC’s Active People Healthy Nation (APHN) campaign. This campaign aims to get 27 million more Americans physically active by 2027. The goal of these local efforts is to make residents “in the know” about parks and active places so more can visit and use them to be active, socialize, and enjoy time outdoors.

The campaign is in full swing; here’s what community members have said about it:

“[The billboard] is going to make people think, ‘I want to go find [the parks!]”

“It’s a great source of information and inspiration because people will want to go and find [the parks] and use them.”

Residents of Roma, Rio Grande City, and Eagle Pass can visit tx.ag/parks to learn about parks and other active places like plazas, walking trails, bike lanes, and schools with after-school amenities. The website also includes information about StoryWalk™, a program that allows children and families to get active together while they read a book that is posted page-by-page along a designated route.

Watch your community for more resources, like billboards, maps, posters, and cues around to help you learn about local active infrastructure. For more information, visit tx.ag/parks.

Note: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s Working on Wellness Environments (WOW-E) program is funded in part by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) High Obesity Program.

Moverte es Importante para tu Salud

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Cuidar de ti misma es una de las cosas más importantes que puedes hacer para ti y tu familia. Una forma de cuidar de ti misma es haciendo actividad física regular. Hacer más actividad física puede ayudarte a dormir mejor, reducir el estrés y reducir tu riesgo de enfermedades del corazón, ataque cerebral, algunos cánceres y diabetes tipo 2.

Nos estamos uniendo a otras organizaciones locales y nacionales para apoyar a la campaña Moving Matters, parte de la iniciativa Gente Activa, Nación Sana™ (Active People, Healthy Nation™), para ayudar a promover los beneficios de la actividad física, motivar a las personas a encontrar pequeñas formas de incluir movimiento en su día y recodarle a las personas que la actividad física puede ser divertida.

Visita https://www.cdc.gov/movernos para aprender más sobre la campaña y explorer maneras para moverte.

Moving Matters for Your Health

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Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do for you and your family. One way to do that is to get regular physical activity. Increased physical activity can improve your sleep, reduce stress, and lower your risk of heart disease, stroke, some cancers, and type 2 diabetes.

We are joining other local and national organizations in supporting the Moving Matters campaign, part of the Active People, Healthy Nation℠ initiative, to help promote the benefits of physical activity, encourage people to find small ways to incorporate movement into their day, and remind people that physical activity can be fun.

Visit cdc.gov/MovingMatters to learn more about the campaign and explore ways to get moving!

Where do you go to be healthy? Share your photos with us!

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Out for a walk, biking to the store, or playing basketball with friends? Send us your photo, description of your active environment, and why you like to go there to celebrate your community on the move!  

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension WOW-E’s Active People Healthy Nation Initiative is kicking off in mid- February and we will be showcasing your pictures in our campaign video and on social media!* Research tells us lack of knowledge of places to be active is a barrier for many people. This project aims to bring attention to healthy places and share with people who might not know about the opportunity to be active. Click here to submit your photo(s)/description(s).

*By submitting an image or video, you grant Working on Wellness Environments (WOW-E) staff permission to use your image, likeness, and sound of your voice as recorded on audio or video tape without payment or consideration. Your image may be edited, copied, exhibited, published, or distributed, and you waive the right to inspect or approve the finished product.