REFLECTIONS ON A PIONEER IN HEALTH PROMOTION

By Russ Kisby, President, ParticipACTION

Times change. New learnings and understandings emerge. As witnessed by today’s growing "Wellness Movement," our current knowledge of the inseparable body-mind-spirit relationship is in many ways an updated appreciation of a concept powerfully articulated over 100 years ago by the YMCA and YWCA organizations. The "Y’s" in turn were building upon a reality expressed centuries earlier by historical medical and philosophical pioneers.

Surely the key is to learn from the past - - unsuccessful as well as successful efforts - - and to adapt to current and future needs. That is the metamorphosis ParticipACTION is undergoing today.

It may be timely (perhaps nostalgic), to pause for a moment and reflect on some of ParticipACTION’s achievements and learnings from the past. Indeed, many of today’s wellness and health promotion leaders throughout Canada were major contributors to these learnings. And it is these learnings that will be the base upon which a renewed and repositioned organization will be built in the near future.

VISIONARY LEADERS

ParticipACTION was the "brain child" of then Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

In 1971 Trudeau established this small, national, non-profit, catalytic health promotion organization. He convinced former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson to become Chair of its first Board of Directors. He also convinced Mr. Philippe de Gaspe Beaubien (former Director General of the internationally successful EXPO’ 67) to provide leadership in developing and implementing a strategic plan of action. Over the years many business, media, government and health leaders have volunteered their time and expertise to serve on the organization’s Board of Directors.

A CATALYST
From the beginning, Trudeau / Pearson / Beaubien established three objectives for ParticipACTION:

ACHIEVEMENTS

While money is clearly "not everything," it can be one significant measure of progress. For the record therefore, during its first 30 years of operation (1971 ‚ 2001):

• ParticipACTION received $21 million (cash) in funding from Health Canada;
• generated $40 million (cash) in support from the private sector and provincial / territorial governments;
• obtained $65 million "in-kind" support from local communities; and
• received over $280 million in free media exposure from some 2500 mass media partners throughout Canada. All in all, an impressive return on the public funds invested.

More important, during these three decades, ParticipACTION and its numerous partners throughout Canada - - health, fitness and wellness leaders, non-profit and for-profit organizations, volunteers, etc. - - have witnessed the percent of "regularly active Canadians" move from approximately 10% to 35% (Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute).

Today, ParticipACTION is internationally recognized as a pioneer in health promotion, social marketing, and public ‚ private ‚ volunteer partnerships. Some 25 countries worldwide have adopted this "Canadian model." Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Pearson would be proud.

MOVING MOUNTAINS WITH A WHEELBARROW

Perhaps the most important learning from ParticipACTION's first three decades - - particularly for wellness leaders - - is the "power of one."

When confronted with a big problem people often think: "Something should be done . . . . but what difference can I make?" And another well-intentioned effort ends before it begins. The hidden, pessimistic assumption is that big problems will only succumb to big money, big organizations and by government.

In our ParticipACTION experience, it's not necessarily so.

From the start our task was to help change the health attitudes and habits of a whole country. At first, it seemed a lot like trying to move a mountain with a wheelbarrow. Remarkably, the mountain has been moving.

From experience, we learned that half of the secret of getting things done is not to spend a lot of time, money and effort trying to do things you're not equipped to do. We learned very early that we couldn't hope to improve the health and fitness of Canadians by ourselves. We therefore decided our primary focus should be on communications ‚ being catalysts - - and resist the temptation to get directly into programming or building facilities. Far from limiting our effectiveness and range, this concentration increased them. It removed us from potential competition with other groups and left us in a position to cooperate with them.

As a result we demonstrated an ability to positively work with literally dozens of national organizations, hundreds of cities and towns, and thousands of workplaces, schools, seniors groups, health and recreation centers, health units and local clubs. Cooperation and strategic alliances became a key strategy in our success.

Equally important, we also learned early on that even though we were a national organization, we should not try to create change from the "top down." Indeed we became convinced - - and it has proven to be a wise decision - - that we would be more effective if we addressed individuals on a highly personal basis, either directly (the media) or via those they most respected (health and wellness leaders, peer group, local leaders of clubs, etc.). The best way to build a movement for change, we found, is from the bottom up.

This important learning regarding the influence of "front line" wellness leaders - - the "power of one" - - warrants emphasis.

The experience of ParticipACTION and other behavior change initiatives has demonstrated that mass media campaigns and mass distributed educational materials are valuable in helping to create general public awareness of health issues and the actions individuals can undertake. Nevertheless, most individual behavior change is primarily and ultimately impacted by inter-personal influencers.

This understanding - - which moves wellness leaders to the "front line" in the battle to change personal lifestyle practices - - greatly influenced ParticipACTION's strategies over the years. Increasingly, all initiatives - - from media campaigns to resource materials and high profile events - - were designed to primarily support the efforts of "front line" wellness / fitness leaders and other community-based health influencers.

ParticipACTION's experience with this strategy has been positive. We found that the resources necessary for action and change are usually already in place. Therefore we concluded that the best way to move mountains is to mobilize those resources, to work as a catalyst, to bring the movers and shakers together under the umbrella of a good idea.

THE FUTURE

ParticipACTION's Board of Directors, in cooperation with Health Canada and assisted by a small group of respected health promotion and population health leaders, is currently exploring a renewed mandate for this internationally acknowledged "wellness pioneer." Perhaps the next decade will see a renewed effort by ParticipACTION and its many partners.

Russ Kisby
President, ParticipACTION

A couple more health promotion links:

www.canadian-health-network.ca

www.cihi.ca