Create An Activity Action Plan

Now that you have established which activities to implement you can begin creating your activity action plan. Use the Activity Action Plan worksheet (PDF-35k) as a template to guide you through this step. Consider the following:

• Individuals who will do the work.
• Resources such as cost and materials needed to get the job done.
• Target dates for completing all the tasks and delivering the activity.
• Presentation of your activity action plan to senior management.

Assign Responsibilities

As needed, appoint or recruit team leaders or captains. You may want to develop smaller teams that have leaders or "captains" to help provide motivation, information, and support to program participants.¹⁷² Examples of teams and functions include the following:

• Assessment Team: Conducts ongoing assessment.
• Nutrition Team: Develops nutrition education materials and plans nutrition seminars during lunch periods.
• Physical Activity Team: Develops and implements physical activity programs and physical activity challenges.
• Policy Team: Reviews current nutrition or physical activity policies.

Determine Resources

When looking for resources for your activities, keep in mind that many program materials can be found for free or at low cost through several different types of organizations, including the following:

• Local public health departments
• Organizations such as the American Heart Association, the American Dietetic Association, and the local YMCA
• State and national government agencies, such as CDC, HHS, NHLBI, NCI, USDA, and state health departments

An alternative for obtaining the necessary resources for your program is to look into offering your worksite obesity prevention and control program in cooperation with your organization's health plan provider.¹⁷³ Working with your health plan provider can lower costs for both you and your provider.

Organizations with limited resources can often get local staff from hospitals or universities to speak to their employees for free. Try contacting one of the following places to see if anyone is available:

• Local hospitals
• Public health departments
• Universities
• Voluntary health associations that focus on issues such as heart health, cancer, lung, and diabetes
• Private physician practices.¹⁷³

Government agencies can also turn to the Federal Occupational Health unit within the Department of Health and Human Services' Program Support Center. The Healthier Feds—Employee Health Services Handbook also offers useful information for developing a worksite obesity prevention and control program.¹⁷⁴

Determine Activity Timeline

When developing an activity timeline, there are several key dates to consider:

• Identify when you will host your program kick-off. For example, consider the New Year when people are making New Year's resolutions.
• Plan your kick-off times around established organization events and avoid seasonal busy times, such as vacation or holiday periods.
• Consider employees' schedules when developing the timeline so that everyone has a chance to take part. For example, consider accommodating the schedules of shift workers or families.

Use the National Health Observances Web site to help choose a day to plan your activity around.

Also in This Section

• Determine Activities
• Expert Interview - Kristi Schalow
• Expert Interview - Tonya Vyhlidal
• Expert Interview - William B. Baun
• Expert Interview - David M. DeJoy

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