Biggest Mover Challenge 2012

Our current course is about developing health promotion programs in diverse settings. Even only a few weeks into the course, I've come to great appreciate and delve into the complex realm of health promotion and it's role within health education. Now that health promotion programs are over taking the fore front of my mind, I am beginning to realize just how prevalent they are in my community, life, and workplace. While walking to the gym from work last week I glanced up at the electronic community billboard and happened to notice that they were promoting a community wide health promotion program. Curiosity piqued, I went to the city website to find out a little more about it. It is called the "Biggest Mover Challenge 2012" and is hosted by the city, with a couple of private sponsors, for New Westminster residents.

The basic premise of the challenge is that you log your physical activity through the tracking passport they provide and complete a tally sheet which is then returned at the end of the challenge. In addition, there are weekly challenges on a variety of aspects of healthy living, such as eating better, drinking, getting more sleep, and taking preventative health measures such as having your blood pressure checked. Challenge participants that return they're tally sheets and have recorded a baseline number of points are eligible to win prizes. There is also an optional weight loss component (optional weekly weigh ins at a designated time and location) if participants so chose.

I find this initiative quite interesting, and while I am not privy to the exact health promotion model or theory used to create the challenge, I definitely see many of the steps and processes outlined in our text at play in the creation, implementation, and vision of the program.

In an interview in The Record (a local paper) New Westminster's active community programmer Sandy Earle states that the "objective of the program is to have people become aware of how active they are, and to perhaps increase [it]".  She also states that the biggest mover goals are based on recommendations from Canada's Physical Activity Guide. From this, I infer that through an assessment, it was determined that many NewWestminster residents struggle to meet the recommendations of Canada's Physical Activity Guide and that this may contribute to health issues facing residents.

She also speaks that this challenge builds on a similar challenge launched last year called "the Biggest Loser" where residents competed to loose weight within a given time frame. The shift from a solely weight loss based program to a more inclusive activity based program speaks to the likelihood of an assessment or evaluation of last years model which may have been to narrow a focus or exclusionary.

Earle also mentions in the article that the additional weekly challenges are an attempt to "[tie] in a bit of education" which from an evaluation or assessment of last years challenge may have been found to be missing. I'm unconvinced that these mini challenges would actually fall under health education instead of health promotion, as while it encourages participants to do them, it gives no information or reasons as to why, it is clear that assessment and evaluation from the previous model is making an impact on the planning and implementation of the new challenge.

All in all, I think it is a great initiative, and I have chosen to participate in it. The challenge starts today and runs until April 28th. While I'm a little skeptical of the honour system that they are running it on, I look forward to taking part and gaining a better understanding of health promotion programs in my community, and some benefits and pitfalls of such a program.

http://www.newwestpcr.ca/database/files/library/2012_Biggest_Mover_Challenge.pdf

http://www.royalcityrecord.com/health/Moving+challenge+launched/6095899/story.html