Mayors Wellness Campaign Summary

Project Summary: The Mayors Wellness Campaign (MWC) supports Mayors as champions of community health.  The goal of the campaign is to improve health, reduce health care costs related to obesity, and make New Jersey a national leader in community-based health interventions. Through a public-private partnership of civic, academic, and health policy advocates, the MWC seeks to foster active living and healthy lifestyles by providing communities the structure and resources to implement healthy community initiatives.

Plan and Objectives: The MWC will work to implement a comprehensive program of outreach, education and technical assistance activities to combat obesity and inactivity issues for all state residents.  It is designed to facilitate multi-partner, multi-strategy approaches at the local level. It will:

• Raise awareness of the health and fiscal costs of obesity and overweight in the state;
• Survey communities to identify existing programs, catalog resources, and gauge needs specific to community-based health interventions;
• Enlist mayors in a pledge of commitment to MWC goals and programs;
• Assist mayors in assessing community capacity for public health initiatives;
• Assist mayors in shaping municipal-level strategic plans for community health by incorporating smart growth principals;
• Assist mayors with marketing, planning, selection, and implementation of projects;
• Support county health departments in Mobilizing for Action Through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) exercises, a strategic approach to community health improvement;
• Facilitate interagency efforts to address overweight and obesity at the municipal level;
• Provide municipalities with an evolving “Toolbox” of multimedia resources, including an annual “best available practices” report on critical topics;
• Measure effectiveness of select interventions;
• Conduct learning sessions to share expertise on common efforts;
• Provide mayors with tools to assess and evaluate their efforts;
• Document program efforts and link Mayors with common interests; and
• Conduct outreach to highlight successes and findings at local and national levels.

MWC Team: The MWC is an initiative of the NJ Health Care Quality Institute in partnership with the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University.  A major founding grant was provided by Aetna, Inc., with additional funding from the NJ Department of Transportation.  The MWC was created in association with the Regional Plan Association, New Jersey State League of Municipalities and the Ramapo College Nursing Program, a joint degree program with UMDNJ.