The StrongWomen Change Clubs: Engaging Residents to Catalyze Positive Change in Food and Physical Activity Environments

Introduction. The epidemic of obesity is a multifaceted public health issue. Positive policy and environmental changes are needed to support healthier eating and increased physical activity. Methods. StrongWomen Change Clubs (SWCCs) were developed through an academic-community research partnership between researchers at Cornell University and Tufts University and community partners (cooperative extension educators) in rural towns in seven U.S. states. Extension educators served as the local leader and each recruited 10–15 residents to undertake a project to improve some aspect of the nutrition or physical activity environment. Most residents had limited (or no) experience in civic engagement. At 6 and 12 months after implementation, the research team conducted key informant interviews with SWCC leaders to capture their perceptions of program process, benchmark achievement, and self-efficacy. Results. At 12 months, each SWCC had accomplished one benchmark; the majority had completed three or more benchmarks. They described common processes for achieving benchmarks such as building relationships and leveraging stakeholder partnerships. Barriers to benchmark achievement included busy schedules and resistance to and slow pace of change. Conclusion. Findings suggest that community change initiatives that involve stakeholders, build upon existing activities and organizational resources, and establish feasible timelines and goals can successfully catalyze environmental change. 1. Introduction Obesity is understood to be the result of complex socioecological factors and interventions that target multiple levels of the socioecological framework, including individual, social, built environment, and policy factors, are more likely to be successful [1–3]. Civic engagement is one approach to create support for environmental change. However, the effectiveness of civic engagement projects and/or coalition work to address obesity is difficult to measure, primarily because goals and activities differ between communities [4]. In a comprehensive review examining community coalitions focused on a range of health promotion initiatives, Zakocs and Edwards report inconsistent results when examining factors associated with coalition effectiveness; some factors associated with success were group cohesion, leadership, agency collaboration, member participation, and diversity [5]. Similarly, Roussos and Fawcett reported that while findings are insufficient to make strong conclusions, community-level coalitions aimed at changing systems and/or behavior hold potential in affecting