A collaborative grassroots approach to wellness flourishes in central Minnesota

Community programming was built around four goal groups, including healthy choices, mental fitness, workplace wellness and community connections.

Concerns about the health of its residents have deepened in the last several years among health leaders in Crow Wing County. Data showed residents were struggling with weight and mental health issues. But the contributing factors behind poor health are complicated, with 50 percent of health determined by physical environment and socioeconomic factors. The community needed a fresh approach. Through Crow Wing Energized, an innovative community wellness movement, that new approach was realized by starting with one simple act: listening to each other.

“I can’t stress enough how important that was,” says Adam Rees, president of Essentia Health. “We decided that instead of doing things the old way, which was a top-down approach, we would ask for collaboration from the community, from both public and private sectors. We spent a lot of time talking and listening to each other, expanding the conversation to eventually include more than 300 stakeholders. Through that iterative process we were able to make a strategic plan.”

What Crow Wing Energized came up with, after analyzing data, were four distinguished goal groups: healthy choices, mental fitness, workplace wellness and community connections. And as community programming was built out, leaders understood that ensuring a positive experience within service delivery was the key to maximizing community engagement.

For example, Crow Wing Energized put a lot of thought into transforming its local food shelf network in order to encourage healthier food choices and provide for stigma-free shopping.

The organization was also determined to make diabetes prevention programming more accessible to the community. The classes, which use the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) year-long curriculum, typically cost around $400 and were available mainly through the area hospital. Crow Wing Energized expanded access by eliminating the fee involved and making the classes available in multiple locations: in churches, offices, and clinics, and at various times of the day.

The organization certified more than 100 health coaches to teach the NDPP program, which is a lifestyle-focused program, with the goal of five to seven percent weight loss and a minimum of 150 minutes of exercise a week. The enhanced availability of the NDPP program has been so well-received that it’s common for participants to later return as instructors. That was the case with Laura Dilley.

“Four of my brothers and sisters have diabetes or pre-diabetes so I wanted to do whatever I can to reduce my risk,” says Dilley, who is the executive director of Brainerd Carefree Living. “And I loved the program. It offers such good advice on how to count fat grams and make time to get your 150 minutes of activity in. When I was done, I knew I wanted to pass on this knowledge.”

She went through a two-day training and started leading her first class in April. It has been everything she hoped it would be.

“The people are so inspiring. They support each other, they go on walks together, they bond with each other. It’s wonderful to see,” she says. “As a group of 19 they’ve already lost close to 200 pounds. One may even be able to stop taking her diabetes medication because her doctor says she no longer needs it. I’m just so humbled to be a part of what Crow Wing Energized is doing.”

Yet Rees insists there is nothing magical about what they are doing. It just takes a commitment to relationship building.

“The key is to have a collaborative mindset,” he says. “If you design your programming carefully and with a lot of participation in the community, you magnify the chances that changes will be sustained. I mean let’s face it, people start and stop diets all the time. I know that’s the case with me. But when you introduce behavioral modifications like this, in a way that’s friendly and affordable, the changes may stick. That’s what we want.”