The Public Health Sector is led by Dr. Joey Lightner from the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Have a question? Feel free to Contact Us!

KCPA Plan Strategies and Tactics for Public Health

The overarching goal of the Public Health Sector is to promote, protect, and maintain health to prevent disease at the population level by increasing population-level physical activity. The urgency of public health to respond to low participation in physical activity is dire. The rise in rates of chronically poor physical health (high rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer), poor mental health (high rates of depression, anxiety), and poor social health (high rates of social isolation, loneliness) poses a current and growing threat to the health and well-being of all Kansas Citians.

Organizations within the public health sector perform a variety of functions, including research, surveillance, program development and delivery, evaluation, training, advocacy, coalition building, and community engagement. These functions complement and support the goals of several of the KCPA Plan sectors, including Healthcare; Schools; Parks and Recreation; and Infrastructure.

Given the reach of governmental public health across wide segments of the population, the sector has a critical role in promoting physical activity across the Kansas City region. As evidence linking physical activity to the improvement of overall health (physical, mental, and social) grows, public health organizations are increasingly focusing on programs, policies, and initiatives to increase physical activity.

Strategy 35

Public health organizations should disseminate tools and resources important to promoting physical activity.

1. Promote the use of existing tools and resources and identify promising practices, particularly those addressing the needs of underserved populations. 

2. Create repositories and clearinghouses of information on public health practices, tools and resources, including evidence-based and promising physical activity interventions and practices.

3. Disseminate physical activity-promoting practices and policies targeted at agencies and professional societies outside of public health (e.g., youth-serving social services, non-profits in underserved communities, transportation and planning, sports and recreation, education, environmental protection).

4. Identify and support expansion of culturally salient tools that build upon community assets to promote physical activity across all population groups.

5. Identify and create tools and resources appropriate to supporting and advancing the work of physical activity practitioners and researchers.

1. Create and expand relevant local surveillance or other physical activity data collection systems that can be applied across diverse populations to track progress on physical activity promotion at the local and regional level.

2. Define a common framework to evaluate policy and environmental change processes, outcomes, and impacts. 

3. Build the capacity of practitioners to monitor key outcome measures of chosen interventions.

4. Develop a regional physical activity report card that is informed by evidence and tracks actions taken and progress in reducing the burden of disease due to inactivity in the Kansas City region. Use the report card to regularly assess and report on progress toward increasing physical activity and reducing physical inactivity. 

5. Improve and expand surveillance of physical fitness and physical activity, including light activity, using objective measures of physical activity when feasible. 

6. Expand surveillance systems to monitor the status of environmental and policy determinants of physical activity and the disparities in resource availability and utilization.

7. Expand surveillance systems to include the systematic assessment of physical activity and fitness levels of diverse populations of children and youth. For relevant surveillance systems, include state-level reporting, when feasible.

8. Improve linkages between local policy and environmental change and local and regional data collection systems. 

9. Provide health data that allows communities to understand the burden of inactivity in their communities, and to tailor approaches to increase physical activity to local circumstances.

1. Use the most current version of the federal Physical Activity Guidelines and related documents as a foundation for physical activity advocacy and policy development. 

2. Develop an advocacy strategy for coordinated and appropriately funded physical activity research in multiple local funding agencies.

3. Engage local decision makers in funding research on policy development and evaluation of the effects of existing policies related to physical activity. 

4. Encourage local, state, and national public health organizations to collaboratively engage in policy development and advocacy.

5. Engage community-based organizations that represent neighborhoods in policy development, accountability, and advocacy activities. 

6. Engage grassroots organizations that have demonstrated success in other public health arenas, and provide incentives for training and participation in population-based physical activity promotion. 

7. Tailor policy messages for diverse audiences and settings. Identify and engage underserved populations. Target policy messages for each population, segment, and setting.

8. Create a long- and short-term communication schedule for advocacy. 

9. Create an interdisciplinary policy and advocacy center to support advocacy efforts and policy development for physical activity in public health agencies and support advocacy efforts. 

10. Identify and promote advocacy training opportunities for public health professionals and professionals from other sectors with whom public health can work to promote physical activity. 

11. Disseminate information on evidence-based policies related to physical activity by participating in advocacy networks, with emphasis on educating partners at local and state levels.

1. Examine successful cross-sectoral partnerships to identify and incorporate key elements of success into physical activity initiatives.

2. Encourage and train public health professionals to work with, educate, and learn from partners in order to strengthen the effectiveness of the partnership and the efforts of each member.

3. Increase networking and collaboration between practitioners, researchers, community-based organizations, and advocates.

4. Collaborate with agencies representing persons with disabilities and other populations affected by health disparities.

5. Collaborate with “non-traditional” partners to increase the reach of interventions and encourage social capital. Encourage partnerships between local and state health agencies and scientists in academic and private settings to conduct community participatory research to facilitate the dissemination of evidence-based practices to promote physical activity.

1. Provide resources in local health agencies and programs for physical activity comparable to resources provided for tobacco and nutrition. Provide sustainable funding for local health departments so that Physical Activity and Public Health Specialists can create and implement initiatives that promote physical activity.

2. Fund local public health academic units engaged in physical activity research to develop tools and resources for policymakers and practitioners that support the promotion of physical activity in communities.

3. Advocate for sustained funding and resources to local, state, and national public health agencies that support physical activity practitioners to act as conveners of multi-sector coalitions and to provide leadership for strategic partnerships.

4. Encourage CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to invest in capacity building by supporting MPH and PhD programs, continuing medical education, short courses, and distance-based training for physical activity and public health through the Prevention Research Centers (PRCs) and other mechanisms.

5. Advocate to increase funding of CDC, Prevention Research Centers, the Physical Activity Policy Research Network (PAPRN), and the National Institutes of Health to conduct research on policy development and its impact on physical activity.

Public health organizations should develop and maintain a workforce with competence and expertise in physical activity and health and that has ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity.

1. Promote local efforts by CDC, professional societies, and academic institutions to provide training and capacity building in the use, adaptation, and evaluation of evidence-based physical activity promotion strategies. 

2. Build the capacity of practitioners to monitor key outcome measures of chosen physical activity interventions.

3. Enhance academic programs with physical activity practitioner core competencies embedded into the curricula of public health and other disciplines (e.g., healthcare, education, transportation and planning, parks and recreation).  

4. Increase the number of Master’s of Public Health (MPH) programs that provide training on physical activity and its promotion. Increase the number of graduates from these programs.

5. Expand recruitment, outreach, and training efforts to engage students of diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds; students with disabilities; and students representing groups at particular risk of physical inactivity.

6. Encourage professional societies to sponsor scholarship programs for students of diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds; students with disabilities; and students representing groups at particular risk of physical inactivity.

7. Collaborate with a wide range of organizations, including those representing minority groups and persons with disabilities, to build a diverse public health work force that is well prepared to promote physical activity.

8. Support and expand training opportunities (e.g., Physical Activity and Public Health Course) based on core competencies for practitioners, paraprofessionals, community health workers, and professionals from other sectors.

9. Develop interdisciplinary training to ensure that physical activity and public health concepts are connected to other disciplines; also include leadership development and team-building.

10. Increase the number of professionals who are certified Physical Activity and Public Health Specialists.

11. Support the creation of a physical activity and health unit in state health departments that functions as part of an integrated and coordinated approach to chronic disease prevention.

12. Staff physical activity and health units with individuals with expertise in physical activity (e.g., public health physical activity specialist) with whom public health must collaborate in order to provide opportunities for physical activity within communities.

13. Encourage local, state, and national public health associations to form physical activity sections within their organizations.

14. Encourage professional societies in public health to adopt and disseminate core competencies for public health practitioners in physical activity, update the core competencies regularly.