Here are 10 Do-It-Yourself Tips to become an advocate for active living in your community

1. Meet with the School Board: Ask to meet with the school board in your community.  Make a presentation about the importance of physical education to the growth and development of young Canadians.  Promote Health Canada’s Guide to Healthy Active Living for Children and Youth and communicate the importance of school aged children, 5 to 18, having at least 30 minutes a day of regular physical activity.  The Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD) and the Canadian Paediatric Society have already developed presentations to promote healthy active living for children and youth.

2. Write a column for the local newspaper: Use your credentials as a family doctor to gain a voice in your local newspaper.  Whether you write one column or you submit it weekly, use the opportunity to promote active living, to provide tips to readers on how to live active lives and to direct people to resources in the community.  If you don’t want to write a column, send a letter to the editor in response to a related story.

3. Meet with the mayor: Politicians like to meet with community leaders.  Use your status as a family doctor and your knowledge about your community to meet with the mayor or a city councilor to discuss active living programs.  Present why active living communities are good for the health of Canadians.    Politicians want to hear good ideas.  Speak to city planners on the importance of safe and attractive walking/riding trails in communities designed for all Canadians including those who are disabled.  

4. Work with a charity: Identify a charity in your community and work with the fundraising committee to organize a walk, run or hike (or something even more creative like snow shoeing or tobogganing).  See if you can link the charity’s cause and the fundraising event to active living.  For example, diabetes and active living logically fit together.  Motivate your peers and working colleagues to join the cause.

5. Create a speaking program: Create a persuasive presentation on active living and seek out venues to present it, such as community centres, local service clubs, classrooms, church groups etc.  Try to empower these groups to become more active and to encourage them to make their communities more active. 

6. Pick an infrastructure project and make it happen: Identify a real public infrastructure need in your community and push to see it get done.  Whether it’s bike lanes on the main roads to more safely allow people to cycle to work or school or it’s a walking trail near a seniors resident, identify the greatest need in your community, find the people who can best help you get it done, and work to make it happen.

7. Start up an active-living program: If you have a particular interest or skill, use it to create an active living program in your community.  For example, organize guided hikes through nearby parks or by downtown historical sights; start a cross-country ski club; or, create a noon-hour, physical activity program for office workers.

8. Get the workers moving: Present Health Canada’s Business Case for Active Living at Work to companies in your community to encourage active living opportunities to their employees.  Make it easy for them to integrate the activities into the work environment.  Find a way to recognize employers that take up this challenge, such as creating a flag for the front of their building, promising to run an advertisement in a local newspaper, or receiving a special civic award.  

9. Contact the partners: The Doctors Promoting Active Living program has six partner organizations.  Feel free to contact them and let them know of your interest in promoting active living.  See if there is something you can do with the partner organization in your community.

10. Contact the College: The College of Family Physicians of Canada supports the Doctors Promoting Active Living program. The College can provide you with more information and resources so that you can help to promote active living in your community.