The Move Your Way® Community Playbook offers tips and resources to help community organizations implement the Move Your Way campaign at the local level. The Move Your Way campaign is the promotional campaign for the second edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and can help people live healthier lives through increased physical activity.
This playbook is an implementation guide — which means it will help you plan for, conduct, and evaluate your organization’s physical activity efforts, like programs, activities, and events.
You can follow all the steps in the playbook to plan and run a communications campaign — which includes a series of activities and events and usually lasts for a set amount of time. Or you can pick and choose resources and tips that are most useful for your work — whether you’re planning an event, creating a new program, or expanding existing activities to promote physical activity in your community. Use the playbook and Move Your Way campaign materials to help people in your community get more active!
It’s a good idea to read through the entire playbook once to get a preview of all the tips and resources. Then use the table of contents to come back to specific sections when you need them.
The playbook includes both web content and downloadable PDFs. If you want to print a copy of the entire playbook (both the web content and the PDF resources), it’s a 2-step process:
Interested in customizing materials for your organization?
You can swap out photos or add your organization’s logo to Move Your Way materials through the CDC State and Community Health Media Center. If you have questions about using Move Your Way materials, want to create your own, or would like help implementing the campaign in your community, please contact us.
Move Your Way® and the Move Your Way logo are registered service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Phase 1: Planning & Strategy Development
In this section of the playbook, you’ll learn how to plan and launch a physical activity campaign. But keep in mind that you can adapt many of the tips to match your unique needs and approach. For example, build your team has information about working with partners to get people in your community moving, whether it’s through a campaign or individual activities and events.
Ready to bring Move Your Way® to your community? First, identify your campaign team and lead organization.
The campaign team is the core group of people who will guide your local Move Your Way® campaign activities and initiatives from planning through implementation.
The lead organization — usually a government public health office or an organization related to physical activity or health and wellness — is the institutional home of the community campaign.
Working solo or without a lead organization? No problem — you can adapt the tips and resources in the playbook to build a campaign on the scale that works for you.
Now it’s time to map out your strategies for success. Plan to spend 3 to 5 months in the planning and strategy development phase.
During this phase, the campaign team is responsible for planning the campaign, delegating tasks, and securing funding and other support. Phase 2: Implementation & Evaluation will include overseeing events, disseminating materials, coordinating with committees and partners, and evaluating campaign activities.
The Physical Activity Guidelines provides recommendations about the amount and types of activity adults and children need to stay healthy. And the Move Your Way campaign provides fact sheets, posters, videos, and interactive tools to help turn those recommendations into easy-to-understand physical activity guidance for youth, adults, older adults, people during and after pregnancy, parents, and health professionals.
Move Your Way resources are for all Americans, but we know one size doesn’t fit all. That’s where you come in! Think about the resources that will be most useful for you. Which materials will resonate most with people in your community? Will you need materials in English, Spanish, or both? Start imagining where you can distribute and share materials locally and how Move Your Way can help support existing or new physical activity efforts in your community.
Check out the What is the Move Your Way Campaign? video clip to learn more about the campaign. It’s also a great resource to share with your team and potential partners!
Tips
Take our Move Your Way resources for a test drive! Use the Move Your Way Activity Planner to build your own weekly physical activity plan, or watch the Move Your Way Videos together with your campaign team. It’s much easier to promote materials you’ve used yourself.
Sign up for health.gov email updates about physical activity — including announcements for new Move Your Way resources!
Review some implementation strategies to learn about different types of events, activities, and programs that can be used to promote the campaign.
Check out Move Your Way pilot communities
Since ODPHP launched the campaign in 2018, 10 communities have launched their own community pilot campaigns. These pilots were led by a variety of public health departments, parks and recreation departments, and nonprofits focused on physical activity and health.
Communities nationwide — no matter their size, location, or budget — can adapt Move Your Way to fit their needs, resources, and opportunities. Check out the following blog posts to learn how organizations across the United States made Move Your Way a success in their communities:
Communities with fewer than 30,000 people
The Live Well Streator team in Streator, Illinois, at their Move Your Way launch event.
Streator, Illinois: In 2020, Live Well Streator kicked off their campaign with an in-person event at the Streator Incubator. Participants joined fitness classes, walked briskly around the perimeter of the facility, and received resources about community organizations that support physical activity.
Communities with 30,000 to 200,000 people
Jackson, Mississippi: In 2019, the Mississippi State Department of Health’s campaign in Jackson, Mississippi, included a social media challenge and a “Try-a-thon” launch event that encouraged people to get active.
Sioux City, Iowa: The Siouxland District Health Department used in-person activities, social media, and educational signs throughout town during their 2020 campaign. In 2021, Sioux City focused their second Move Your Way campaign on physical activity during and after pregnancy.
Wyandotte County, Kansas: BikeWalkKC, an active transportation organization in Kansas City, connected Move Your Way messages with a growing interest in safe bicycling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Communities with 200,000 to 1 million people
A young community member at a Move Your Way event in Southern West Virginia.
Cabarrus County, North Carolina: In 2020, Cabarrus Health Alliance used Move Your Way messages and resources to support their Walk Cabarrus walking challenge.
Columbus, Ohio: Move Your Way helped Columbus Public Health develop new and unexpected collaborations during their urban campaign.
Southern West Virginia: Active Southern West Virginia used both in-person and virtual activities during their 2020 campaign to offer physical activity programs to West Virginians in 6 counties, and they focused on older adults during their 2021 implementation.
Communities with more than 1 million people
Chicago, Illinois: In 2020, the Chicago Park District encouraged residents to get active at home and in their local parks. Then, in 2021, Chicago implemented another Move Your Way campaign — but this time they focused on encouraging teens to get active.
Fairfax County, Virginia: Fairfax County Park Authority incorporated Move Your Way into their Healthy Strides virtual fitness classes.
Southern Nevada: In 2019, the Southern Nevada Health District held a Move Your Way 5K event and worked with schools to reach local families. Then, in 2021, Las Vegas launched another Move Your Way campaign, this one focused on Spanish speakers in the community.
Listen to community pilot partners across the country explain how they successfully used Move Your Way in their communities.
Tips
View this webinar recording to learn about successful strategies a few of these communities used to implement their Move Your Way campaigns.
Set priorities, goals, and metrics
The national Move Your Way campaign aims to help people live healthier lives through physical activity — but you can set unique, place-based goals and priorities for your local community campaign.
To guide strategy development, sit down with your campaign team and decide on:
Priority populations you want to reach, like Spanish speakers or parents of school-aged children
Goals you want to work toward, like boosting local youth sports participation
Objectives to help you reach those goals, like offering free or low-cost youth sports teams at local rec centers
A time frame for reaching your goals and promoting the campaign
Metrics you’ll use to measure success, like event attendance, engagement on social media, or new partnerships
You can continue to refine and adjust these goals and priorities throughout the planning phase, but it’s helpful to have guidance in place as you search for partners and coordinate tasks.
Tips
When you’re choosing priority populations, think of groups in your community that are less likely to be meeting the Physical Activity Guidelines and that have fewer services available to them. This will help you maximize your impact.
Remember to look for opportunities to engage your campaign's priority audience early on in campaign development. Getting your audience involved in the planning and decision-making process will help make your campaign a success!
Plan ahead for using metrics (like engagement on your social media posts) and gathering data. Check out the Evaluate your challenges and successes section for evaluation tips and resources. Then make a clear plan with your campaign team to track these metrics continuously during your campaign.
Resources
Use the Campaign Implementation Tracker to decide which key metrics you’d like to collect during your campaign, like number of materials distributed.
There are many ways to use Move Your Way to encourage physical activity — no matter your organization’s size, location, or budget. This list is based on creative ideas from the Move Your Way pilot communities and evidence-based strategies for getting people active. Use it as a starting point to help you brainstorm ways for using Move Your Way in your own community!
Use built environment promotion
A Move Your Way sign encouraging physical activity near a trail in Sioux City, Iowa.
The places where people live, work, and play make a big difference when it comes to physical activity levels. When you’re encouraging people to get active, try using these strategies that take their environment into account:
Point-of-decision prompts: Use Move Your Way messaging on signs that encourage people to choose to be more active. For example, near a stairwell or wheelchair ramp, put a sign that reads: “Adults need at least 150 minutes of physical activity every week. Try taking the stairs or using the ramp instead of the elevator — it all adds up!”
Wayfinding signage: Incorporate Move Your Way messages and imagery on signage near trails, parks, playgrounds, and busy pedestrian zones to let people know the distance to other nearby locations. For example, next to a trail mile marker, put a sign that says: “Get a little more active each day. Move Your Way.”
Educational signage: Sometimes people in your community may need help understanding how they can use everyday equipment to be active — and educational signs can help with this. For example, consider putting a sign near playground benches that reads: “Adults need physical activity, too — and lots of things count!” and has images and descriptions of activities that involve a bench.
Public awareness activities: Use Move Your Way to plan a launch event for a new or restored park, trail, or greenway. At the launch event, promote the features of the new infrastructure alongside Move Your Way fact sheets and posters to encourage community members to get active and learn about the benefits of physical activity. Remember to build social media into to your promotional efforts!
Host community events
A Move Your Way information booth at a community event in Southern Nevada.
According to The Community Guide, community events are an important piece of community-wide campaigns to promote physical activity and get people moving. Try using these strategies when you’re hosting or participating in events that encourage people to get active:
Host Move Your Way-themed events: Move Your Way pilot communities have hosted a variety of Move Your Way events, like family 5Ks and winter festivals with activity ideas for colder months.
Join other community events: Think about how you might build a Move Your Way presence at existing community events! You could organize an activity break during a summer concert series, support active transportation events like Bike-to-Work Day, or pass out Move Your Way resources at health fairs. Consider developing a resource list or calendar that highlights local activities and physical activity events.
Advertise in the community and distribute print materials
The Move Your Way campaign works best when people see messages and materials in many places. Distributing print materials and using environmental advertising can promote physical activity outside of events, programming, and online activities. Try using these strategies to get creative with advertising in the community:
Use environmental advertising: Consider creating Move Your Way educational billboards, bus advertisements, or other place-based ads in your community.
Collaborate with partners: You don’t have to distribute the materials on your own! Partners play a vital role in the success of community campaigns. Move Your Way community pilots have worked alongside schools, parks and recreation departments, Safe Routes to School programs, bicycling organizations, libraries, Scouts, chambers of commerce, Kiwanis, community colleges, universities, cooperative extensions, community health coalitions, and more.
Meet people where they are: Brainstorm where people in your community gather. Maybe it’s the local diner, library, or park. See if your local food bank can hand out fact sheets as part of their food distribution — or if nearby vaccine clinics can distribute Move Your Way resources with their follow-up materials.
Get creative with physical activity programming
You can also include Move Your Way in physical activity programming in your community. Community pilot organizations added Move Your Way messaging, education, and materials into walking challenges, free and low-cost fitness classes, kids run clubs, walking groups, and worksite wellness initiatives.
Use point-of-care prompts
Research shows that health care providers play an important role in promoting physical activity within their community. Try partnering with local health care providers and encouraging them to talk with their patients about the importance of getting more active.
Health care facilities can also promote physical activity by displaying Move Your Way posters in waiting rooms and hallways, distributing fact sheets during patient visits, and playing Move Your Way videos on office televisions.
Harness public affairs activities
Get the word out about physical activity and the Move Your Way campaign through public affairs activities like interviews on local TV broadcasts, coverage in the local paper or an online newsletter, and mentions by radio hosts.
Promote Move Your Way online and through social media
Social media and other online promotion can be a major element of spreading the word about Move Your Way! Take advantage of Move Your Way’s social media messages and graphics to promote physical activity across platforms. Some Move Your Way pilot communities have taken social media a step further and held challenges encouraging followers to share photos and videos of how they move — and to include the hashtag #MoveYourWay.
Host virtual events and other programming
Promoting physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic meant a shift to virtual events and programming for communities across the United States. But virtual events don’t have to be limited to pandemic times — they can be a great way to engage community members who might not make it to in-person activities!
For example, many Move Your Way community pilots held virtual launch events. Other community pilots offered Move Your Way-themed virtual fitness classes — which are a great way to provide physical activity opportunities to people in their homes!
If you’re partnering with health care providers, point them to the Move Your Way resources specifically for them so they can get tips for talking with patients about how to get enough physical activity.
We’re here to help! Reach out to us with any questions about implementing Move Your Way in your community.
Delegate key tasks
Based on input from our pilot communities, ODPHP recommends delegating tasks in the following key areas to prepare for the campaign:
Partnerships — engaging with influential local organizations and leaders to build support and coordinate physical activity efforts
Media — setting strategy for using social media and other channels to spread the word about your campaign
Events — planning your launch and other community events to engage local audiences and get people moving
Materials — selecting, customizing, and distributing Move Your Way materials to promote campaign events and initiatives
But remember, every community is different! Organize and delegate your tasks however works best for you. If you’re working solo, choose priority tasks to lead yourself and ask partner organizations to take the lead on others. If you have lots of people pitching in, you can form committees to tackle each key area — just make sure to coordinate efforts.
Tips
To help decide on key tasks or recruit people to serve on committees, hold a community roundtable event. Invite local public health professionals and community members from various fields and ask for their input.
Create a shared calendar to plan and track committee meetings and other campaign events and activities.
Resources
Use or adapt ourRecruitment Email to ask people to join your campaign efforts and work on different priority tasks.
Follow the Campaign Launch Task List [PDF - 947.74 KB] to guide priority tasks in the months before and after the launch event. If you don’t have committees, delegate priority tasks to members of your campaign team.
Think about ways to collaborate with partners in your community. Which local organizations have similar goals? How can you use Move Your Way to work with them?
Make lists of potential partners, including:
Traditional partners, like schools, worksite wellness programs, and community-based organizations related to physical activity
Non-traditional partners, like police departments, local chambers of commerce, and religious organizations
Organizations that work on related issues, like preventing chronic diseases or building walkable neighborhoods
Influential community members who can serve as local champions for the campaign
If you already have a coalition of local partners, work to strengthen it by adding new partners and increasing engagement with members of your existing coalition.
Then do some legwork to choose the most promising opportunities:
Designate a point person to reach out to key contacts.
Attend upcoming community meetings and events to network and talk about potential collaborations.
Regroup with your campaign team to decide which new partnerships to pursue.
Tips
Start by contacting people you know. Networking is key to successful community campaigns, so reach out to your contacts in local government, nonprofits, and private business who may be willing to get involved with Move Your Way.
Get creative and consider partnerships with organizations that can help you plan and execute Move Your Way community events — like vendors, venues, or service clubs.
The connections you’re making through Move Your Way could last a lifetime — but only if you maintain them. Remember to send thank you notes to your partners to let them know how much you appreciate their support.
Planning and implementing a Move Your Way community campaign is a big undertaking, and you’ll need sufficient funding and volunteer support to pull it off. But when people hear about the great work you’re doing, they’ll be happy to help!
Decide what you need to be successful and start asking for it:
Create a budget that includes costs for event venues, supplies, vendors, printing, advertising, and campaign team salaries.
Apply for grants from government public health agencies and nonprofits at the national, state, or local level. Check out the resources below for sample grant language.
Ask local businesses to donate or lend items for events, like event space, food, sports equipment, and prizes for giveaways.
Recruit volunteers to help with campaign activities, like taking photos or registering attendees at the launch event.
Tips
Ask local colleges if their students need volunteer opportunities. Student volunteers can help run events. They may also be able to contribute skills like video production and graphic design.
When you ask for donations, explain how they’ll be used. Paint a picture of the event or material and how it will impact real people in your community. People are more likely to donate if they can picture what they’re funding.
If you’re approaching existing donors, frame the campaign as an exciting new project — and a reason to renew their support.
Offer to add donor logos to your campaign materials in exchange for donations.
Ask everyone involved in your campaign to help out with networking — personal contacts are more likely to donate time and money. Encourage them to reach out in person and on social media.
People having fun with winter activities at the Move Your Way launch event in Sioux City, Iowa.
Your launch event introduces your campaign to the whole community. Plan an event that will raise awareness about Move Your Way and get people excited about physical activity.
Brainstorm ideas for your launch event, including:
Local venues, like parks, rec centers, or schools
Must-haves for your location, like convenient public transportation
Speakers and special guests to help lead activities, like local athletes or elected officials
Event activities, like a bike ride or an obstacle course
Vendors who can provide other services, like face painting or nutrition counseling
Ways to use campaign materials, like handing out fact sheets to attendees
Ways to promote the event, like social media or radio ads
Decide on a launch event plan with your campaign team. Then delegate tasks like sending invitations, confirming speakers, and booking a venue — and make sure to set deadlines so everything stays on track.
Tips
Be sure to engage with your campaign audience when you're planning your launch event. Find out what types of activities and events they're interested in attending.
Make your event accessible. Choose a venue that’s welcoming for people with disabilities and families with kids of all ages.
Offer lower-intensity activity options — like a 1K walk alongside a 5K run — to be more welcoming to kids, older adults, or anyone just starting to get active.
Plan for the weather. If you’re launching in summer, consider hosting some or all of the event in an air-conditioned space. If your event is outdoors, choose a rain date. You can even launch virtually or with winter-specific activities.
Mix it up! Offer a range of activities to help people find things they really enjoy. Consider fun group activities like Zumba and line dancing, and choose things that work for people with diverse abilities.
Move Your Way® and the Move Your Way logo are registered service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS encourages organizations and individuals to download, print, and distribute Move Your Way materials. You can swap out photos or add your organization’s logo through the CDC State and Community Health Media Center. If you have questions about using Move Your Way materials or want to create your own, please contact us.
Phase 2: Implementation & Evaluation
During this phase, you’ll get tips for distributing Move Your Way® materials at schools, workplaces, health care facilities, and in other settings — and for promoting physical activity through social media and other channels. You’ll also find resources to help you host community events.
Evaluating your progress and successes is an important part of improving your efforts to promote physical activity over time. If you're running a campaign, regroup with your campaign team and any committees you’ve created at least every 1 to 2 months. That way, you can assess the campaign’s progress and decide what you want to do differently moving forward.
Think about your priority populations and the materials you need to engage them. Are you trying to reach older adults? Parents? Kids? People who are pregnant or recently had a baby?
Move Your Way has lots of free resources that are easy to print and distribute at events. Hand out Move Your Way posters and fact sheets to event attendees and local partners, like health care providers and schools. Find all the Move Your Way materials.
A customized Move Your Way sticker promoting the “Walk Cabarrus” #1BillionSteps Challenge.
You can also customize Move Your Way materials through the CDC State and Community Health Media Center. For a small fee, you can add your lead organization’s logo to fact sheets and posters — and choose alternate versions with images showing different geographic locations and priority populations. Do you have questions about using Move Your Way materials or creating your own? Contact us.
Work with your campaign team to identify:
Which Move Your Way materials you want to use
How you want to customize them
Where you can distribute them
How many copies of each material you need to print
Tips
Think about how you can build Move Your Way into existing initiatives. Does your community focus on safe and active routes to schools? Consider how you could collaborate with that effort to promote physical activity.
Take advantage of the places where people already gather! Farmers markets, food distribution sites, or even summer outdoor movies can be great opportunities to share information about Move Your Way.
Try to gather feedback from your priority audience on materials you're developing before you distribute them. Participate in meetings your partners hold with your priority audience, and look for opportunities to engage attendees after the meeting ends.
If you’re trying to engage Spanish-speaking audiences, make sure to provide Spanish versions of all materials at events and online.
Use the Campaign Implementation Tracker [DOC - 121.12 KB] to record where you distribute materials, how many you give out, and how partners plan to use them. And don’t leave this for the end of your campaign — make sure to track as you go!
Host community events
A Facebook post promoting Active Southern West Virginia’s “Strolling Summers County Six Week Activity Challenge”.
Events are a great way to bring community members together and get people excited about physical activity. They're also an opportunity to network and meet new potential partners!
If you're running a campaign, aim to hold at least 3 community events in the months after your launch event. If you don’t have the capacity to host standalone events, try presenting about Move Your Way at existing community events, like health fairs or charity fundraisers.
Before all events, make sure to get the word out! Post on social media and reach out through all available channels — like local newspapers, TV and radio stations, and listservs — to make sure people know about your upcoming event and how they can get involved. You could also consider developing a calendar to highlight all the local events and activities you'll participate in and then share the calendar online through social media, in a newsletter, or on your website.
Tips
You don’t have to start from scratch! Think about events that are already popular in your community, like festivals or celebrations. Working with the organizers of those events can create opportunities for sharing the campaign or offering a physical activity break.
Keep track of all the people who attend your events. Gather email addresses from attendees who’d like to get updates about your physical activity programs and activities.
Take lots of photos and videos of events — these are great to share on social media and send to partners and donors. (Don’t forget to get photo releases from the attendees! Add the release to your online event registration, or use paper forms at the registration table.)
Ask attendees to record their goals on the Move Your Way Pledge Sheet and share selfies with their pledges on social media.
Resources
Share these Campaign Talking Points [PDF - 809.13 KB] with guest speakers at your events, local champions who attend events on your behalf, and anyone else who may speak in public about the campaign.
Get the word out to your community! Reach out to every available channel, including local TV and radio stations, newspapers, magazines, podcasts, blogs, and listservs. Ask them to cover your community events, pitch interviews with your campaign staff, or offer to write an op-ed about the importance of physical activity.
Make sure key community leaders and partners — like the mayor and other local leaders — are aware of your campaign. Keep them in the loop and share key talking points so they’ll be ready for any questions from the media or the public.
And think about how you can meet people where they are — whether that's at physical locations like a doctor's office or on a specific online platform like Facebook or YouTube.
Don’t forget about social media!
Use or adapt our sample social media content to help you spread the word about Move Your Way and encourage people to get active. You can quickly copy and paste the text into Twitter or Facebook and attach the related GIF or graphic. And it’s easy to add your logo to our graphics and GIFs through the CDC State and Community Health Media Center.
Consider doing a social media ad buy to draw even more eyes to your campaign. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter let you target ads to your audiences by age, location, interests, and more. And there’s no fixed cost for social media advertising, so you decide how much to spend.
Whether you’re planning an ad buy or focusing on non-paid social media, keep these best practices in mind:
Know your objective for each priority audience, like increasing participation in sports among local teens.
Pick the platform that’s most popular with each priority audience, like Instagram, YouTube, or Tik Tok for younger adults and Facebook for older adults.
Add images and videos to your content to increase views.
If you’re looking for ways to encourage teens in your community to get involved, consider sharing this Tips for Creating Your Own Move Your Way® Teen Video fact sheet. It has tips to help teens record their own video about how they get moving — and explains how they can share their video on social media to spread the word.
In addition to using #MoveYourWay, create a unique hashtag for your community campaign. That way, your local followers can easily find relevant posts.
Add local flair to your posts. Mention local parks and rec centers to show people accessible places to get active.
Start a Move Your Way social media challenge! Ask partners and followers to post photos and videos showing how they like to get active — and then challenge their friends and coworkers to do the same.
Share your partners’ posts and resources, and don’t forget to tag them in your posts. This will help boost reach and engagement for both of you.
Resources
Sign up for physical activity emails and follow us on Twitter @HealthGov and Facebook @HHSHealthGov for updates on campaign activities — including new resources like sample social media messages that can help you spread the word about the campaign.
Remember to document your progress as you go and reflect on what worked and what didn’t. That way, you can tweak your ongoing efforts and improve your campaign strategy.
Think back to the goals and objectives you set in the planning phase of your campaign, and try to evaluate the success of each one. If you adjusted your goals along the way, make sure to update your evaluation plan, too.
After each event and at regular intervals throughout the campaign, make sure to document important information, like:
How many community members attended each event (either in person or virtual)?
How many of each campaign material did you and your partners distribute?
How many people did you reach through each communication activity, like email newsletters or social media challenges?
At the end of your campaign, get together with everyone involved in your campaign to debrief your evaluation data, make plans for the future, and celebrate a job well done!
Tips
At the end of each month, export analytics from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to evaluate your social media efforts. And use Google Analytics to see how many people visited your website.
Take a look at the number of impressions to see how many people viewed your social media posts, and look at engagements to understand how many people interacted with posts. Compare the impressions and engagements for all of your social media posts to see which posts performed the best — and consider replicating posts that performed well.
Leverage your campaign evaluations to secure additional funding. Include process and outcome data in future grant applications and donation requests.
Move Your Way® and the Move Your Way logo are registered service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HHS encourages organizations and individuals to download, print, and distribute Move Your Way materials. You can swap out photos or add your organization’s logo through the CDC State and Community Health Media Center. If you have questions about using Move Your Way materials or want to create your own, please contact us.
Tips
Resources
