McLeod County SHIP staff has been work-ing in partnership with the cities of Silver Lake, Winsted and Hutchinson which have the Luce Line Trail running through or near their cities. SHIP efforts continue to generate support for improving community walkability, bikeability, and recreation op-portunities.

This includes work in Glencoe, Hutchin-son, and Silver Lake to review existing com-munity planning documents (ie. county and city comprehensive plans, pedestrian plans, bike plans, etc) in the context of current community design, land use, transportation, and recreation facility issues. SHIP staff has also been in contact with the City of Glen-coe who will be working on a potential trail that leads from Glencoe to Plato.

For example, the City of Winsted has a trails master plan to maintain and enhance existing trails and sidewalks, while forming the blue print for future trails and corridors within the city. The focus is on increasing the number of regular trail users to a better connected trail system. The Winsted Park Commission has been working on a signage plan to get non-motorized, Luce Line Trail users into downtown Winsted and city residents to the trail. The “Winsted Byway” trail connection was a priority due to the economic benefits it could provide to down-town businesses.

GOALS

1 Increase physical activity through policy, systems or environmental change

2 Improve school nutrition policies

3 Improve employee worksite health policies

4 Improve policy and practices that support physical activity in licensed child care and pre-school settings

5 Increased health care referral of patients to local nutrition, physical activity and tobacco cessation resources

GOAL: Increase physical activity through policy, systems or environmental change

Charting the Course2010

Source: These charts are based on a random survey of households in Meeker, McLeod and Sibley Counties done by the Minnesota

Institute of Public Health (MIPH) in 2010. For this chart, the number of responses (MMS = 813, McLeod County = 266, Hutchinson

= 82 and Glencoe = 84) have been adjusted to account for individuals with health conditions or disabilities that prevent them from

walking or biking more often.

S H I P P R O G R E S S I N M c L E O D C O U N T Y

Percent of Respondents that Would Walk or Bike More Often with Environment Changes

53

53

64

66

69

75

79

45

45

54

47

57

60

60

51

58

59

56

67

70

71

51

60

62

63

67

70

74

Slowing of motor vehicletra�c with signsor speed bumps

Development of safewalking/biking

routes to school

Make streets more bicycle-friendly

Repair or wideningof exiting sidewalks

Development of moresidewalks to accommodate

walkers and bikers

Creation of safe andconvenient road crossings

for walkers and bikers

Building of trails and pathsfor walking and biking

GlencoeHutchinsonMcLeodMMS

The primary SHIP partner is Glencoe-Silver Lake (GSL) School District with a population of 1,747 students. Stu-dents who live in Biscay, Brownton, Glencoe, Plato and Silver Lake generally attend the GSL school system which includes 4 school buildings – 3 located in Glencoe and 1 located in Silver Lake.

Progress on develop a communication plan to share information about school nutrition policies has identified some key challenges that MMS SHIP staff will address in year two. The District School Nurse would like to implement the School Health Index in each school building. A key need is to have a stronger wellness policy in selected schools, and re-engaging the current wellness committees.

At GSL, the current wellness committee members feel their policy is strong enough, but there are significant problems with compliance if staff members are either not following the policy or they do not know about the policy. While the schools have been a vital partner for the SHIP initiative, wellness committee members have many other responsibilities which affect their capacity to com-plete SHIP tasks. Although Farm to School programs are not an initial priority for McLeod County SHIP efforts, community level support is similar to other MMS counties.

Farm to School Programs designed

to bring healthy food from local farms to school children are

highly supported by the MMS SHIP

Survey respondents.

Respondents reported that healthy

food and beverage choices would not

decrease purchases for fundraising.

GOAL: Improve school nutrition policies

page 2

74 76 76 83

19 19 20117 5 4 6

MMS McLeod Glencoe Hutchinson

Very high or high Neutral Low or very low

Percent with High or Very High levels of Support for Farm to School Programs

41 38 3345

53 54 5749

6 7 10 6

MMS McLeod Glencoe Hutchinson

Percent Willing to Buy Healthy Food and Beverages, as well as Non-food Items for School Fundraising

More than I have in the recent past

Same as I have in the recent past

Less than I have in the recent past

Note: For this chart, the percentage of responses by location have been adjusted to account for individuals who had not pur-chased before.

GOAL: Improve employee worksite health policies

page 3

McLeod County has five worksites that are committed to this inter-vention. McLeod County Government is the first worksite to put a comprehensive wellness program in place, and will serve as a role model. The results from an online worksite wellness interest survey for McLeod County are shown in this chart.

McLeod County has written a draft policy regarding the nutri-tion environment, and a tobacco-free campus policy, which are being reviewed by the wellness committee and will be taken to the McLeod County Board of Commissioners for formal approval.

McLeod SHIP staff are also working with four other worksites to assess worksite employee wellness culture, policies, practices, pro-grams, budgets and insurance companies. Glencoe Silver Lake and Hutchinson School Districts are following that lead and have orga-nized wellness committees to develop employee priorities and an ac-tion plan. St. Mary’s Care Center is emerging as the next worksite to tackle this intervention and they have made informal changes in prac-tices. They are offering healthier choices in the cold vending machine and are looking to incorporate healthier food options during their recognition dinners.

Some of the worksite challenges include: worksites not offering a health plan, employing a small number of employees, having minimal flexibility in the workday schedule. McLeod SHIP staff will also be creating networking opportunities for these worksites.

McLeod County worksites and number of employees include: Glencoe Silver Lake Schools (191), Hutchinson Schools (400), New Century Charter School in Hutchinson (30), McLeod County Em-ployees (269) and St Mary’s Care Center in Winsted (70). Not all employees completed the MIPH worksite survey.

Source: Online survey of MMS SHIP worksites 2010.

The majority of people responding to the MMS SHIP Survey support worksite wellness programs.

Continued on page 4

25

22

32

18

20

9

15

9

11

8

11

9

42

43

25

39

32

39

30

33

25

23

19

15

33

35

43

43

48

52

54

58

63

70

70

76

Locations andpolicies to support

breastfeeding women

Tobacco cessation support, including recognition

O�ering and labelinghealthy food in cafeteria

& vending machines

Facilities that promotephysical activity such

as bike racks

Preventive wellnessscreenings related to tobacco

Annual Health Risk Appraisals with personalized follow-up

Healthy food choices formeetings and conferences

Workplace wellnessprogram for employees

Times for wellness activities

Preventive wellnessscreenings related to obesity

Tobacco-free workplaceand campus

Incentives for participatingin wellness programs

Low or very low Neutral High or very high

Percent of Employees with High or Very High Interest in Worksite Wellness Changes

59 59 61 61

32 33 30 30

9 8 9 9

MMS McLeod Glencoe Hutchinson

Very high or high Neutral Low or very low

Percent of MMS Resondents With Very High or High Support for Worksite Wellness Programs

Many worksites have started employee wellness programs that may include dif-ferent components.

One of McLeod County’s most successful ac-complishments has been to engage 50% of its pre-schools with increasing childhood physi-cal activity. Eight of the 16 pre-schools and 5 out of 121 child care settings in the county are participating with a total of 461 children. These facilities will be receiving hands-on training along with having access to the Early Childhood “Spark” curriculum. McLeod County has also created a booklet on places to be active with children in McLeod County.

The main challenge for McLeod County has been that quite a few more daycares were interested in participating in this interven-tion, but because of staff capacity, we were only able to accept five of them into the program.

Overall, the goal for the 13 programs involved is to complete an action plan, make the changes in the plan, and tell parents about the changes. Some of the child care centers and pre-schools have adopted policy changes, or changed their environment in ways such as: set a policy regarding exercise time and television viewing, added active play items to the outdoor play area, rede-signed the layout of the active play area, add a specific skill or equipment item per week to add variety and have age appropriate items.

GOAL: Improve policy and practices that support physical activity in licensed child care and pre-school settings

Most who work outside the home do

not have, or know about, such programs

(except respondents liv-ing near Hutchinson).

This chart was adjusted to include only those who work outside the home. The number of respondents who have an eligible worksite are: MMS = 517, McLeod County = 179, Glencoe = 54 and Hutchinson = 60.

GOAL: Increased health care referral of patients to local nutrition, physical activity, and tobacco cessation resources Efforts around proving healthcare referrals will gain momentum during the current fiscal year (2010–2011).

43 4535

5246 42 44 38

12 12 2010

MMS McLeod Glencoe Hutchinson

Yes No I do not know

Percent with an Employee Wellness Program at their Worksite Adjusted for only those working outside home.