Healthy Pathways
Phase 1 | 2017 - 2020
In 2017, Geary County was one of eight Kansas communities selected as a grantee in the largest community grant program ever funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. The Pathways to a Healthy Kansas program provided community coalitions like Live Well Geary County with the tools and resources needed to remove barriers and engage the community in ways that enable healthy eating and tobacco-free, active living to become a way of life. The funding for Geary County included a coordination grant of $100,000, with opportunities to apply for non-competitive implementation and achievements grants amounting to $400,000, for a total of $500,000, during the three-year grant cycle.
Pathways
Community Policy
Live Well Geary County, the City of Junction City, and the Flint Hills Metropolitan Planning Organization created a partnership to improve walking and biking in Junction City.
Food Retail
Funded fresh produce display stands at the point of purchase for all Handy’s LLC convenience stores in Junction City and Grandview Plaza.
Healthy Pathways
Phase 1 | 2017 - 2020
In 2017, Geary County was one of eight Kansas communities selected as a grantee in the largest community grant program ever funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. The Pathways to a Healthy Kansas program provided community coalitions like Live Well Geary County with the tools and resources needed to remove barriers and engage the community in ways that enable healthy eating and tobacco-free, active living to become a way of life. The funding for Geary County included a coordination grant of $100,000, with opportunities to apply for non-competitive implementation and achievements grants amounting to $400,000, for a total of $500,000, during the three-year grant cycle.
Pathways
Community Policy
Live Well Geary County, the City of Junction City, and the Flint Hills Metropolitan Planning Organization created a partnership to improve walking and biking in Junction City.
Food Retail
Funded fresh produce display stands at the point of purchase for all Handy’s LLC convenience stores in Junction City and Grandview Plaza.
Healthcare
Funded implementation of Walk With A Doc program at Geary Community Hospital
Healthy Pathways
Phase 2 | 2020 - 2024
Live Well Geary County’s successful distribution of Phase 1 Pathways funding led to the award of Phase 2 Pathways funding. This crucial next step in Pathways funding includes a $200,000 coordination grant and the opportunity to apply for $200,000 in non-competitive implementation grants for community projects through July 2024.
Phase 2 funding involves six Pathways: Community and Social Context, Neighborhood and Physical Environment, Food, Healthcare, Education, and Economic Stability. Some possible projects for Phase 2 Pathways funding are: a shared-use community kitchen, complete streets, healthy prescriptions, vaping/JUUL prevention and education, food pantry/hunger relief, and worksite wellness.
Pathways
Community & Social Context
Focus on work at the community level to improve social integration, support systems, community engagement, and reduce stress and discrimination.
Communal Meals
Activity Summary: Research from the University of Oxford has revealed that the more often people eat with others, the more likely they are to feel happy and satisfied with their lives. The researchers looked at the link between social eating and an individual’s happiness, the number of friends they have, their connection to their community, and overall satisfaction with life. The results suggest that communal eating increases social bonding and feelings of well-being, and enhances one’s sense of contentedness and embedding within the community. The Administration for Community Living’s Congregate Meals Program for adults 60+ has shown communal meals can improve health for that population, provide access to food and increase social activity.
Activities include identifying a structure for healthy communal meals, planning communal meals, planning a healthy menu for communal meals, communicating and promoting around communal meals, surveying and evaluating the impact of communal meals in the community, and enhancing or expanding an existing congregate or communal meal program.
Economic Stability
Represents an individual’s ability to access resources such as food, housing or healthcare, as well
as creating a healthy business culture to help an employer attract and retain talent, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and improve productivity.
Food Pantry / Hunger Relief
Activity Summary: A Food Pantry is an individual site that distributes bags or boxes of food directly to those in need who reside in a specified area. A food pantry, filled with a variety of nutritious food, helps encourage healthy options for the food pantry clients. Pantries can create a healthy food environment by stocking foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products and lean proteins in the pantry. One of the goals is to encourage healthy food selection and nutrition education. Healthy food pantry initiatives combine hunger relief efforts, nutrition information and healthy eating opportunities for low-income individuals and families.
Activities could include establishing new partnerships with a food bank to create additional access to healthy food in the community, implementing a new food pantry in the community, partnering with schools or the hospital to offer an on-site food pantry, offering food pantry clients healthier food options and beginning fruit and vegetable gleaning programs. Activities can also include improving product placement for healthy options and point-of-decision prompts, partnerships with health and nutrition professionals to offer screening for food insecurity and medical conditions (e.g., diabetes), health and nutrition education, care support services, Plant-a-Row, efforts and community garden donations.
Workwell KS - Foundation Workshop
Activity Summary: Since 2011, WorkWell KS has provided training, resources, and technical assistance for workplaces to develop comprehensive workplace wellness plans. Starting in 2020 for Pathways, WorkWell KS has ready-to-implement, evidence-based strategies that are packaged and ready for employees. With assessments and tailored reports for workplaces, WorkWell KS will help assess a workplace’s culture and determine next steps to improve productivity, morale, retention, and reduce absenteeism and healthcare costs.
Evidence-based strategies are presented in each workshop. The goal is to make the healthy behavior the easy behavior, whereby just by being at the workplace, employees will be healthier.
To create a successful comprehensive workplace wellness initiative, research indicates the need to establish the infrastructure to support workplace wellness before addressing specific topics (e.g., physical activity, commercial tobacco). The WorkWell KS Foundation workshop provides the tools necessary for workplaces to develop a solid wellness initiative foundation.
Activities for grant coordination include recruiting workplaces to attend the Foundations workshop, providing information to workplaces, and assisting workplaces with the Implementation Grant application. Activities for workplaces include sending two or more employees to the workshop, completing required surveys and assessments for the workshop, and completing a foundation plan. The foundation package must be completed by a workplace before they are eligible for a health priority workshop package.
Education
Creating connections between education and health and well-being by promoting healthy lifestyles,
educational attainment, language and literacy skills, and early childhood education and development.
Resist Chapter Support
Activity Summary: Resist is a youth-led, statewide movement created to fight against the tobacco companies. Resist advocates for the denormalization of tobacco use among Kansas youth and unites communities to create one voice to stand up against the tobacco industry. Youth participate in tobacco control prevention activities structured by this program, as well as help design and implement activities utilizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Best Practices for Youth Engagement.
Activities could include exploring the feasibility of establishing a Resist chapter, establish a new chapter, or expanding an existing chapter.
Food
Focus on supporting nutrition programs; policies and practices that promote health; and broader
efforts to support access to, production of, and consumption of healthy foods.
Farmers Market
Activity Summary: Farmers markets provide communities with sources of locally grown, fresh produce during the growing season while also providing local producers with additional retail opportunities to sell their produce. The success of a local farmers market depends on the availability of local growers to provide fresh produce, a commitment from local community members to buy produce at the market, and access to a space for the farmers market to operate. Farmers markets that accept EBT and other food benefits can create opportunities for low-income community members to obtain fresh, local and healthy food.
Activities could include exploring the feasibility of starting a new farmers market, enhancing or expanding an existing farmers market, evaluating an existing farmers market; completing paperwork and obtaining equipment to allow farmers market vendors to accept EBT and other food benefits. It can also include sustaining an existing farmers market through additional funding and/or community partners.
Food Systems Planning
Activity Summary: Food systems planning help a local community establish long-term goals, priorities, and recommendations to help guide the development of the local food system and support the health and vitality of the community. Food systems plans can be used to identify challenges and opportunities to create a robust and sustainable community food system. Food systems planning can be developed as a separate chapter or component of a community comprehensive plan or can be a stand alone community plan.
Activities could include exploring the feasibility of developing a food systems plan, creating of a food systems plan, enhancing or expanding an existing food systems plan, evaluating an existing food systems plan, or exploring the sustainability of an existing food systems plan through finding additional funding and/or community partners. Food systems plans must be adopted by the local government through a resolution or ordinance.
Healthcare
Focus on connecting access to healthcare and people understanding how health services impacts
their own health.
Healthy Food Prescription Program
Activity Summary: In healthy food prescription programs, physicians identify at-risk patients—either by a diagnosed diet-related health condition (such as diabetes, obesity), a qualifying income level, or both—and write prescriptions for the consumption of subsidized nutrient-rich foods, including fruits and vegetables (FVs). Produce prescription programs use monetary incentives to alter preferences through nutrition education, subsidizing healthy foods for consumers with low incomes.
Activities could include exploring the feasibility of a new program, creating a new program, enhancing or expanding an existing program, evaluating existing programs, or evaluating the sustainability of existing programs. Additional work may include connecting with partners that can provide healthy foods.
Neighborhood & Physical Environment
Focus on building connections between where a person lives (e.g., housing, neighborhood, and
environment) and his or her health and well-being.
Multimodal Transportation Plans / Complete Streets
Activity Summary: Multimodal transportation planning and implementation creates opportunities to be physically active for pedestrians and bicyclists. Multimodal infrastructure improves pedestrian and bicycle transportation systems, enhances connectivity within a community, and increases safety of walkers and bicyclists.
Activities could include planning and engineering assessments for multimodal transportation infrastructure; constructing, maintaining or improving existing sidewalks; implementing ADA accessibility; wayfaring signage; mapping sidewalk infrastructure; and developing pedestrian/bicycle plans that include assessment of sidewalk infrastructure and recommendations for improved infrastructure. Activities can also include cost sharing efforts. Work should include passing a policy for the purpose of implementing multimodal complete streets policies, master bicycle and pedestrian plans, or working on implementing an existing policy.