Team Dyer County mission is to continue to build and enhance partnerships, collaborations, and community support that will advocate for change that will mobilize the community toward better nutrition & physical activity that will result in better health. In 2008, YMCA of the USA received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to launch its community-based Pioneering Healthy Communities po
licy change initiative at the local and state levels in six states and 32 communities over a period of five years. Addressing childhood obesity requires action not only by parents and children themselves, but all sectors of a community. The places where children live, learn and play influence the foods they eat and the amount of activity they receive. Therefore, promoting policies and creating environments and systems that support healthy eating and improve physical activity patterns can have a profound impact. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 16.3 percent of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 were obese and 31.9 percent were obese or overweight in 2003-2006. The YMCA of Dyer County became an Activate America YMCA in 2007 that started to make changes that will impact the health seeker in Dyer County. In January 2009, Dyer County was named a Pioneering Healthy Community. Dyersburg and Dyer County’s effort in the statewide Pioneering Healthier Community Team has made great strides in winning the fight against obesity due to the efforts of community leaders, partners, and collaborations whose focus is on advocating, educating, and leading the fight against obesity and creating a healthier community.
“The important thing about this partnership is making Dyer County a healthier place for our citizens and for children to grow,” said Dyer County YMCA CEO Randy Butler. “I want to thank everyone from the churches, businesses, to non-profit organizations, local chambers of commerce, local and state governments and healthcare organizations and anyone who has dedicated themselves and their time in any way to making Dyer County healthier.”
Statewide Pioneering Healthier Communities (PHC) is part of the YMCA’s Healthier Communities Initiatives – Pioneering Healthier Communities, Statewide Pioneering Healthier Communities and ACHIEVE. Collectively, these initiatives engage community leaders, convened by local Ys, in policy, systems and environmental (PSE) change efforts that support and promote healthy lifestyles. These efforts empower communities with proven strategies and models to create and sustain positive and lasting change for healthy living. Team Dyer County has created two regional summits and education series that brought national experts to our area that provided the basis for advocating change. The first community summit was held in October 2010 and focused on addressing obesity issues in our county. During this summit, 180 participants were introduced to the State of Tennessee Obesity Plan, which was adopted by the team. In April 2011, a second summit with 125 participants was held that focused on seven topics and was facilitated by internationally recognized fitness and community planning expert Mark Fenton. Takeaways included environment and transportation by building a bicycle friendly community; identifying a transportation trail network; and developing a sidewalk repair/construction program. Access to physical activity by joint use agreements with school systems, parks/recreation; developing activity clubs for children to have safe places to meet or play; conducting an outreach media campaign to market the canoe launch at Riverpark; encouraging employees use stairs and walk more. Healthy Schools by creating walking loops around schools; improving food choices for students, faculty and staff; utilize more outdoor classrooms; and have creative PE class activities. Worksite Wellness improvement by healthy vending machine options; formal physical activity breaks; stair climbing programs; and creating worksite wellness incentives Early Education to help parents understand the need for routine exercise and good nutrition; creating more parks, trails, and green space for families. One goal was creating calendar events and opportunities that would allow focusing on the health of Dyer County. With this in mind, Butler says more programs were created opportunities to support a healthier community. Some were already in place Walk Across Tennessee, YKnot road race, Lose to Win, Verb, Healthy Kids Days, Farmers Market, Mission March, McIvers Bluff, Depot Days and other community events. Others were created to aid or enhance programs in place Couch to 5K, and Morning Milers. Six policy priorities have been derived that focus on the actions steps developed by group work at Mark Fenton Summit. These priorities include:
• Increasing the time, intensity, and duration of physical activity during the school day and out-of school programs. Team Dyer County will work with the City of Dyersburg and Dyer County school staff and elected school boards to increase the amount of time students are engaged in physical activity to meet the State of Tennessee standard of 90 minutes per week. The Team will also work with the two school systems to develop, approve, and implement agreements with both school systems so that school facilities can be open after hours to increase physical activity of students during after school times.
• Access to physical activity by formalizing joint use agreements with school systems, parks and recreation; developing “activity clubs” for children to have safe places to meet and play; conducting an outreach media campaign to market the canoe launch at Riverpark; encouraging employers to have employees use stairs and walk more.
• Healthy Schools through creating walking loops around schools; improving food choices for students, faculty and staff; utilize more outdoor classrooms ; and have creative PE class activities.
• Early Education to help parents understand the need for routine exercise and good nutrition; creating more parks, trails, and green space for families; and establishing a community splash pad or interactive fountain.
• Increasing physical activity by improving the built environment in the community. The YMCA of Dyer County and Team Dyer County will work to invoke policy changes by building a dedicated system of bike trails connecting various locations in the community. This will enable individuals and families to move safely about the community and connect the downtown area farmers market, Riverpark, with local schools and colleges.
• Build environment and transportation by building a bicycle friendly community designation with the League of American Bicyclists; identifying a transportation trail network; developing a sidewalk repair and construction program; reverse diagonal parking in downtown; and pursuing a fishing lake in the area.
• Access to healthy affordable food by plating more community gardens, encouraging local restaurants to have healthy menu options; having more fresh produce in convenience stores; and having healthy food options in public vending machines.
• Address issues special to vulnerable populations by working with churches; targeting green space and establishing community gardens in at-risk neighborhoods; and launching mobile farmers markets to reach at-risk neighborhoods.
• Worksite Wellness improvement by healthy vending machine options; formal physical activity breaks; stair climbing programs; and creating worksite wellness incentives. These seven areas are also goals and objectives of the State Obesity Task Force that we have adopted. Along with our local work we have two team members co-chairing the parks and recreation side of the state obesity task force plan. In addition, the downtown Dyersburg area has been redeveloped. A seasonal Farmer’s Market has been added within walking distance of the banks of the Forked Deer River. The city was awarded a grant to develop recreational trails on the levee, which will create a fitness destination in downtown Dyersburg, and allow for the development of a blue way, making a place for kayakers to launch their boats in town. The Mississippi River Corridor group is aiding in this process making the Mississippi River vital tourist and recreational blue way for our area. This area is the centerpiece of a master plan being developed to add bike paths and urban trail systems connecting our community to all important destinations including parks, the farmers market, downtown, Dyersburg State Community College, schools, community gardens, churches, the YMCA, activity centers, recreational activities and business to one another. In 2012, the city of Dyersburg was awarded grant funding to create biking and walking paths to ensure that our school age children have safe routes to travel to school without depending on vehicles. The Safe Routes to School grant was written by committee members and is now being implemented by the cities engineers. To further develop the area’s biker and walker friendliness, a team is working on the implementation of a plan to develop urban trails utilizing existing sidewalks and determining where the best place to add additional sidewalks to link the existing. Trails will be designated with a color system, with each color designating a different distance path. This will create additional areas for those desiring to walk and bike for fitness to do so safely without having to travel away from their homes. The Dyer County PHC team has been awarded $650,000 in grant funding to date. The funding has made the previously mentioned accomplishments possible and also allowed them to work on several youth-focused programs. A grant from the Wal-Mart foundation allowed for the expansion of the Summer Feeding Program to provide physical activity in addition to lunch and educational activities to underprivileged youth during the summer school break period. Also, a grant from the United Way of West Tennessee has allowed for the development of a children’s diabetes and obesity prevention after-school program. This program has allowed the team to provide instructor-led physical activity as well as nutritional education to obese and pre-diabetic children and their families every day after school. Grant funding has also allowed for the development of two different adult diabetes programs. One program is more casual and provides an opportunity for instructor led physical activity along with brief diabetes and nutrition education sessions. The other program is more in depth and offers a limited number of participants a monthly two-hour diabetes/nutrition education class and twice weekly personal training sessions. These are coupled along with a leadership element to encourage participants to educate and encourage physical activity and healthy choices among their friends and families. As a result of the PHC team’s success and advancement of healthy lifestyles, the city of Dyersburg has appointed team as a subcommittee to the city’s Parks and Recreation committee to influence healthier long-term city planning. This appointment has the potential to impact the community even greater by allowing for more impact through city planning. Over the next 10 years, Butler says the local PHC expects to see the completion of the development and construction of healthy routes to school for children, the levee system recreational trail, and the development of several urban trails within the city of Dyersburg. The team’s goal is to connect Dyersburg with the local municipality of Newbern with a bike trail within this period of time as well. The team also plans to expand youth and adult diabetes prevention programs to be regular programming with consistent participation.
