Community-wide network focusing on boosting Knox County's health

Over the past several months, Hays has been working on gathering input from the community through wellness assessments that include tours of different facilities — businesses, schools, places such as the YMCA of Vincennes.

Hays met with Mayor Joe Yochum and his staff to talk about ongoing city initiatives that affect the community at large, such as the “complete streets” ordinance that calls sidewalks and bike lanes be added to all new street projects whenever feasible.

“The next step is figuring out what are some approaches that we can take toward community wellness, and I'm seeing a lot of things from my data that's going to mesh well with the active living workshop,” Hays said.

That workshop took place last October, thanks to funding from the Indiana State Department of Health, in conjunction with Indianapolis-based Health by Design and Leverage Points Consulting. It included a “walk audit” of downtown Vincennes, during which a group residents toured city streets to focus on walkability, as well as an analysis of maps to see how different local areas are suitable for biking or walking.

Workshop participants also looked at different policies, programs and projects that would help make the community better for active living.

The hope was that within a year, the group would be able to write a story detailing one thing that they've implemented to improve the community.

But the people who participated in the workshop — everyone from employees with the city parks department to school administrators to elected officials and YMCA representatives — have their sights set on more than just one project, said Debra Hardwick, community health coordinator at Good Samaritan Hospital.

“We have a good assortment of community leadership, and we came up with an action plan to promote active living in our community,” she said.

That plan includes many “action items” that fit into what Hays is trying to accomplish, too.

“Instead of duplicating things, I think we're going to join forces and have more of a united voice so hopefully we can get some things accomplished,” he said.

The workshop participants have divided up into committees, Hardwick said, and each committee is tasked with addressing an action item. One committee, which mostly consists of parks department representatives, is focusing on developing a map that people can use to find out how to walk to historical landmarks or other points of interest.

Another action item is to create safe walkways to all city schools as well as design artistic crosswalks and sidewalks, Hardwick said, on downtown streets to make them more attractive.

“That's kind of a neat thing. There's all this 3-D artwork you can put on sidewalks and there are different things you can do to crosswalks — decorate them with footprints or piano keys — that I think would be a really big draw for people to come downtown,” she said. “We're hoping we can find some local Vincennes University or high school students to work on those.”

A committee is also working on creating signage that would promote walking. Instead of installing a sign that states “1 mile to George Rogers Clark National Historical Park,” for example, the sign would share instead how many minutes it would take to walk to the park, as well as some information about the park's history.

“Studies have found that people are more willing to walk 7 minutes rather than a half-mile,” Hardwick said.

She added that another group is working on how to better promote and market all the educational activities that are going on in parks across the community.

As Hays continues to forge ahead and collaborate with the active living workshop participants, Hardwick said the committees are working to implement some of their own action items by the end of this year.

“There's a lot of really great things going on in Vincennes right now,” Hardwick said. “It's really nice because it has created a network among everyone, from the schools to the hospital, to work together toward making the community a more attractive place to walk, bicycle, hike and be active.”