One of the most lasting and effective ways to make sure physical activity is a regular feature at your congregation (also at your work place, school, day care center, assisted living center) is to put policies or guidelines in place as a formal commitment and reminder to incorporate movement into your time together and to use your space to promote active recreation. Long after the policy is on the books, future congregational staff and members will be able to look back at the written policy and continue your community's wellness efforts. You can also sign and display a Congregational Wellness Pledge.

At your congregation or other institution, your policies (or guidelines if you feel more comfortable with that term) can include: "At gatherings lasting two or more hours, we will include a 15-minute guided stretching break every two hours," or ""We will include 15 minutes of physical activity in lesson plans for weekly religious education or child care" or "In our all-day summer camp program, children will get at least 60 minutes of active play daily; 30 minutes will be structured and led by teachers."

At home, your family can talk about (and maybe put your thoughts in writing) committing to make active recreation a part of your routine. Your household's "physical activity policy" can include things like: "We will spend 30 minutes walking after dinner at least twice a week," or "Every weekend, we will get active together for at least one hour."

Another strategy that works well is changing your indoor and outdoor spaces to make physical activity easy and pleasant to achieve there. For example, you could put in a bike rack to encourage people to bike to worship services, add a play structure, or equip a black top area with basketball hoops and painted hopscotch and foursquare games. Indoors, you could invest in an exercise space with padding on the floors and walls, or simply put up signs that urge people to use the stairs instead of the elevator and posters you design about caring for our bodies as a way of honoring the Divine.

For bike parking options and instructions for installation, check the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Safe Routes to School, and the City of Portland, Oregon website. The Bicycle Transportation Alliance and Safe Routes to School offer important tips on bike safety. For instructions on designing and installing safe outdoor play areas, try the Wisconsin Child Care Improvement Project's "S.A.F.E. Outdoor Play" guide, KidsHealth Nemours Foundation website, eHow's "How to Install a Playground" tips, and Rules of the Playground's "7 Critical Steps for Planning a Playground Layout." Some of these guides include additional resources on safety issues and funding sources to make your play area come to life. Peaceful Playgrounds offers a complete package for creating outdoor play areas for schools and organizations; it includes training, design instructions, stencils and other tools for creating black top play areas, and ideas for children's outdoor games, though there is a fee for these resources. The site provides some information on grants and other ways to fund the play area.

Finally, make physical activity an inseparable part of your congregation's traditions with these ideas for healthy celebrations and healthy fundraisers that include suggestions for active play as part of the event e.g. learning Irish step dancing on St. Patrick's Day and making exercise the main feature in a fundraiser, such as a dance-a-thon or walk-a-thon. Both booklets were designed for schools, but the ideas would work well in most settings, including at your congregation. Get creative! Congregational Wellness Project pilot sites and others have tried things like: sacred dance or energetic singing and dancing during worship, walking as a Lenten reflection, and social justice projects that involve exercise e.g. collecting pledges and tracking how much mileage or time everyone spends walking or moving until you get to a predetermined group goal, as in walking to Haiti to raise money for earthquake survivors.

Click here for sample written guidelines and policies you can use as a start for your faith community.

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