Greetings!
The Healthy Community Alliance (HCA) is focused on helping people to move more, eat better and not use tobacco!
We do this by helping our Partner organizations use their own "sphere of influence" to encourage their audiences to engage in healthy habits. The HCA has toolkits and other materials that are free to distribute to parishioners, and our HCA workgroups bring together Partners for discussions about ways to leverage policies, environmental resources and programs in a customized fashion for each organization.
One of our HCA Church Partners is Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Muncie. Since joining the HCA in 2016, they have implemented numerous projects and programs to engage parishioners in healthy lifestyle activities as well as extended programming to neighborhood residents. Two congregation members, Linda and Dawn Marie, volunteer to attend HCA workgroup meetings and take ideas back to the church. To help the congregation 'get moving' a walking club was organized and continues to meet weekly. A friendly competition called "Walk to Jerusalem" was organized where participants logged their walking distances while at home and work. The duo created a library of health resource materials, and using donated equipment created a small 'fitness room' in an unused area of the church. Wellness thinking became so prominent that church leaders integrated wellness components into their long range strategic plan. In 2020, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church was recognized for their dedication to healthy lifestyle promotion and presented with the annual HCA 100,000 Award.
Membership in the HCA is free, and Partners choose their own path for the ways they leverage information learned as a Partner and then use their 'sphere of influence' to encourage healthy lifestyles. Because there is a high level of trust within faith based organizations, activities such as those demonstrated by Holy Trinity Lutheran Church can have strong levels of participation and effectiveness over time.
Please join us to learn more! Our HCA Partner Workgroups meet every other month in Blackford and Jay Counties. Sign up for more info HERE. Join us via Teams or in person when available. For more information, please contact John Disher at jdisher1@iuhealth.org or Vicki Delzeith at vdelzeith@iuhealth.org .