This blog post is part of an ongoing series to inform park and recreation professionals about the strategies in the National Physical Activity Plan’s Community Recreation, Fitness and Parks (CRFP) physical activity sector. Read part one here.
Three Wins is a concept that provides free exercise classes at local parks to support individual and community health and gives kinesiology students an exceptional internship opportunity to polish their skills in exercise training. Collaborations between university kinesiology departments and local park and recreation departments have benefits for all.
The Three Wins project was first initiated by Dr. Steven Loy, who understands the importance of a collaborative team approach, which multiple other universities and park systems have adopted. Because this concept is so promising and effective, it needs to be scaled up, so all university kinesiology departments can partner with park and recreation departments to offer their students this important internship opportunity.
532 colleges offer degrees in kinesiology, and more than 25,000 students earned a bachelor's degree in 2023. If only 10,000 students participated in exercise training internships, reaching an average of 10-20 local residents, we could improve the health of 100,000 to 200,000 people.
How can this get started and grow?
If the partnership also involves local physicians and health professionals who make recommendations to their patients to be more active [eg Park Prescriptions (Park Rx)], they could guide their patients to the exercise classes. The collaboration with local community parks is critical, as they would provide the space for the exercise classes and access to all local residents.
The army of young, educated, enthusiastic university students waiting to provide the activity guidance and support to everyone who comes to the park is the third and most critical component of the team. They can teach programs that meet the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and can adapt the activities for all ages and physical conditions.
Three organizations working together to deliver three wins. A WIN for each person’s health, a WIN for community health, and a WIN for the student who is applying their knowledge while professionally developing their soft and hard skills for future employment and contributions to the health our communities.
Investing in physical activity
Physical activity is one of the most important behaviors to promote health, well-being and longevity, and the lack of it is closely associated with morbidity and mortality. For example, in predicting mortality from COVID-19, physical inactivity had a greater impact than obesity. Physical activity is also known to reduce physical health problems/diseases (e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers), and mental health disorders (e.g. depression, substance use, dementia).
Despite the glaring need for more efforts to support physical activity in the U.S., the investment in structural supports for physical activity is tiny compared to the investments in the consequences of the lack of physical activity. For example, for the largest 100 U.S. cities, the average investment in parks and recreation in 2023 was about $108 per capita (range $28-480 per capita), while the cost of health care in 2022 was over $ $13,493 per capita.
Many park and recreation departments don’t have the resources to supply regular and frequent physical activity classes, so providing internship opportunities for kinesiology students could boost their impact. It may even help obtain more support from local communities when residents and local politicians realize the benefit of offering free exercise classes.
By not capitalizing on the talents of kinesiology students we are losing free opportunities to get healthier and improve our quality of life. We need to guide people on the best exercise and design these classes to help participants also have fun and make friends.
Deborah A Cohen, Steven F. Loy, Esmeralda Castro, Aaron Hipp, Tim Hughes and Andrew Kaczynski are the National Physical Activity Plan’s Community Sector Committee members who contributed to this blog post.
The National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) is a set of policies, programs, and initiatives to help support physical activity among individuals in the United States. This posting is the second in an ongoing blog series to inform park and recreation professionals about the strategies in the Community Recreation, Fitness and Parks (CRFP) physical activity sector.