Active Southern West Virginia

Striving to make Southern West Virginia a model of health, wellness and active living.

Located in Southern West Virginia, a non-profit organization is wanting to make a change in West Virginia for the better. The non-profit organization, Active Southern West Virginia (Active SWV), recognized West Virginia was struggling with heart disease, diabetes, short life expectancy, drug abuse and obesity. In order to improve these statistics, this non-profit has come together to make a positive change in the community. This organization is striving to improve the statistics and assist the local community by improving health, increasing activity and to become a model for an active living lifestyle.

With the help of The New River Gorge Reginal Development Authority (NRGRDA), Active SWV was launched in November of 2014. Along with the support of NRGRDA, local support from the Beckley Area Foundation, Active RVA, and the West Virginia Physical Activity Plan have brought this non-profit organization to life.

The initiative of the non-profit is to motivate residents, businesses, schools and local governments to make the community more active and healthy. The presence in the community is a strong one in hopes of promoting overall wellness and physical activity in southern West Virginia. Active SWV has made been making an impact in the community by establishing local exercise groups, promoting existing sporting activities, assisting schools with healthy living programs and promoting the area for adventure tourism.

There are five organizational objectives that Active SWV emphasizes:

1. The first is Community Captains. The volunteers are the leaders in the community helping to encourage friends, neighbors and coworkers to live a healthy and active lifestyle.

2. The second is Active Kids SWV. Children are the future and in order to live productive and healthy lives, they need safe places to play as well as places that are accessible to them. Their creativity needs to be heard in order to have fresh and new ideas incorporated.

3. The third is Bike/Walk SWV. In order to encourage these activities, improvements need to be made so walkers, runners and bikers can have a safe environment to exercise outdoors. By making improvements such as making a bike lane and different trails, more and more people will want to get involved in a healthier lifestyle.

4. The fourth is Events. Events are always taking place in the southern part of West Virginia. Active SWV wants to promote these events and motivate community members to attend. There is always something going on in our great state.

5. The fifth is Active Southern West Virginia Ambassadors. Awareness needs to be raised in the community to help promote the importance of an active lifestyle.

Here is our question and answer session with Melanie Seiler, the Executive Director of Active Southern West Virginia.

Q: What goals are hoped to be accomplished through the organization?

A: It is our goal to create a culture of living an active lifestyle. Through recruiting, training, and certifying volunteers to lead free activity programs within their communities, southern West Virginia residents will have access to more opportunities to be physically active.

Q: How many people does it take to work together to make this organization function?

A: Active Southern West Virginia is staffed with an Executive Director and two AmeriCorps VISTA positions. Office and administrative support comes from the NRGRDA, while active programming is managed by our volunteers who are helping their friends and neighbors lead a more active lifestyle. We have over 20 volunteers leading programs this spring.

Q: What events are most popular?

A: Group walks provide both exercise and social interaction. There is also a dog walking opportunity with a local Humane Society. More strenuous activities include Zumba classes, 5k run training, and weekly fun runs. In partnership with the National Park Service, Active SWV will provide free programs at Camp Brookside in Summers County to include; Tai Chi, yoga, fly fishing, archery, astrology hikes, and many more interesting activity options.

Q: How has community involvement impacted your organization and efforts?

A: Empowering the community members to be the leaders and motivators creates a sustainable program benefiting the volunteer in gaining leadership skills while providing a safe, quality experience for participants to stay on track to create lifestyle habits and ultimately change the culture to one of more physical activity.

Q: What kind of an impact is your organization making?

A: Active SWV is seeking to change the culture of inactivity in our region by providing opportunities for our citizens to lead an active lifestyle. Through crossing all sectors; public, private, and non-profit, resources are accessible for a unified mission to improve the health of southern West Virginia. With support from WVU School of Public Health, Active SWV will be measuring the impacts of our programs in 2016.

Q: What are some events coming up?

A: There are kids running clubs being organized in the county school systems throughout the year. Our signature events include a family friendly triathlon at Summersville Lake in August and a 5K run across the New River Bridge in October.

Q: What are some ways readers can get involved?

A: We are recruiting volunteers to become Community Captains in the many small communities of our four county region - Raleigh, Fayette, Nicholas, and Summers. These Community Captains will receive training, certifications, and support in order to lead their friends and neighbors in regular exercise activates.

Q: What does the future look like for Active Southern West Virginia?

A: The demise of the coal industry may have resulted in the loss of our traditional employers however, it also provides us the opportunity to diversify our employment base. In order to attract new industry and businesses, Active SWV seeks to improve the health of the region's workforce while creating a culture of physical exercise and wellness. Our goal is to create opportunities for all citizens of our 4 county region to live active lifestyles. Wellness creates jobs.

For more information about Active Southern West Virginia and to find out how you can come become involved, please visit www.activesw.org and email info@activeswv.com.