Promoting Outdoor
Recreation and Physical
Activity on the Web
Alyssa Ursillo
July 17, 2011
Case Studies
•National Park Service (NPS) Rivers, Trails and
Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA)
•Active Living By Design (ALBD)
•YMCA of the USA (The Y)
Rivers, Trails and Conservation
Assistance Program (RTCA)
 Mission: implements the natural resource conservation and outdoor
recreation mission of the National Park Service in communities across
America
 Health Vision: Through its Rivers, Trails and Conservation
Assistance Program, the National Park Service has launched a
nationwide initiative to encourage healthful outdoor physical activity in
National Parks and local communities to demonstrate practical
approaches for public land managers and community leaders who want
to encourage active lifestyles.
 Target Audience: partners with non-profit organizations, local,
state, federal government agencies, tribes, community groups,
health-related organizations
RTCA Homepage
Pathways to Healthy
Living Homepage
Web Strategy
General
 Conservation monthly enewsletter: 8000 subscribers
 E-postcards announcing
applications and projects
 State PDF pages highlighting
projects
 Community Toolbox, Making
Friends Handbook
 Press releases and news
 Embedded videos about
projects
Pathways to Healthy
Living
 Brief descriptions of health
projects
 Health partners list
 Brief description of health
initiatives
 Outdated publications
 No link back to RTCA, no
RTCA branding
Branding and
Web
Development
•Not on NPS Content
Management System
•Restrictive and inconsistent
government policies on
social media and web design
•Utah State University web
audit and positioning
framework
•Clark Strategic
Communications
recommendations
Future Directions
NPS.gov
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
-Large government agency
-Dedicated staff
-Several partner organizations
-Past web audits and communication strategy
consultations
-Valued reputation as skilled experts by partners
-Highly successful e-newsletter
-Videos highlighting projects embedded in site
-No access to NPS CMS
-Restrictive and inconsistent government
policies on social media and web design
-Situated within slow moving government
bureaucracy
-Weak branding
-Out of date content
-Less experience with health messaging
-Staff diffused through regions, making
communication challenging
Opportunities
Threats
-Momentum around physical activity and
outdoor recreation promotion
-New role in health promotion
-NPS.gov revamp and new vision
-NPS social media guides and strategies
-Corita’s position will focus more exclusively
on website
-Many other health organizations more
experienced in field
-Social media use opens up agency to complaints
about government
-USU surveys found many communities and
organizations do not know RTCA’s mission or
services
-Health only one area of focus
Active Living By Design
(ALBD)
 Mission: create community-led change by working with
local and national partners to build a culture of active
living and healthy eating
 Vision: All communities are healthy communities where
routine physical activity and healthy eating are
accessible, easy and affordable to everyone
 Target Audience: grantees, future funders, media,
interested communities
ALBD Homepage
Web Strategy
 “Story Catcher” – showcases community project
successes for funders and media
 Tool for grantees
 Community profiles and communities in action
 Vimeo, Flickr, Wikipedia, Facebook fan page for
grantee alumni
 Media Center and image gallery
 Dashboard and Healthy Kids, Healthy
Communities (HKHC) website
Branding and
Web
Development
•Began as program office
of Robert Woods Johnson
Foundation: Active Living
by Design (ALbD)
•Began as resource hub
and moved to highlighting
community work
•2009 became independent
organization Active Living
By Design (ALBD)
•New logo
Web Development
HKHC Homepage
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
-Well-organized and easy to navigate site
-Large national organization funders
-Based in school of public health
-Successful rebranding effort
-Targeted social media strategies
-Community profiles and communities in action
-Use limited resources efficiently
-one staff person managing two websites
-limited budget
-Website doesn’t contain links to social media
-At times website is content heavy
-Difference between community profiles and
communities in action unclear at first
-latest news sections and recent resources not updated
-Exclusive health focus
Opportunities
Threats
-Can use features from ALBD site for new HKHC
site
-Dashboard site allows grantees to build own
stories by posting photos, etc.
-Explosion of research on active living and healthy
eating
-Staff now focused on new HKHC program and
website
-No longer giving grants to selected communities
through ALBD
-Explosion of new resources makes it difficult to
keep site updated with latest publications
YMCA of the USA
 Mission: put Christian principles into practice through
programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all
 Focus Areas: youth development, social
responsibility, healthy living
 Healthier Communities and Healthy Family Home
initiatives
 Target Audience: local Ys, families, adults, kids
 Healthy Family Home target audience: families
with kids aged 5-12
Ymca.net Homepage
Healthy Family
Home Homepage
Web Strategy
 Facebook page – 21,729 people like it, Twitter for
some initiatives, Y Finder App
 Local Ys have own websites, social media, web
presence
 Five pillars of a Healthy Family Home: eat healthy,
play every day, get together, go outside, sleep well
 Healthy Family Home newsletter, starter kit, quiz
Branding and
Web
Development
•Healthy Family Home
launched in 2008
•Began with 3 pillars in
phase 1, now has 5 in
phase 2
•Rebranding effort in last
year with revitalized logo
and website – more
colorful to reflect diversity
•“The Y” brand being
brought to local Ys
Future Directions
 Robust sharing site
 More content, knowledge, move towards
outdoors and connecting with local Y camps
 Phase 3 of Healthy Family Home targeted to
emerging families and separate web
presence for teens
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
-Large federated non-profit
-Long history and well-recognized brand
-Successful revitalization of website
-Extremely easy to use and visually appealing website
-Local Y Finder feature
-Healthy Family Home specific web strategy
-Social media staff person
-Strong focus on communities
-Some health initiatives (Healthier Communities)
scattered throughout website
-Limited social media presence for large organization
-Large diffuse network of local Ys makes branding and
unified messaging efforts challenging
-Lack of resources posted on website
Opportunities
Threats
-Connecting with local Y camps to promote health
benefits of outdoor recreation
-Many national organizations as collaborators
-Expanding Healthy Family Home to other target
audiences
-New uses for Twitter
-Increased outreach through local Ys
-Many other initiatives and focus areas not directly
related to health
-Y not necessarily known for health initiatives
-Other organizations or people connected to local Y
creating social networking profiles not endorsed by
YMCA of USA
Comparison
RTCA
ALBD
YMCA
Facebook
x
Twitter
x
Vimeo/YouTube
x
Flickr
x
Wikipedia
x
x
E-newsletter
x
Toolkits
x
x
x
Press releases
x
x
x
Embedded videos
x
Search bar
Resources tab
Community profiles
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
RTCA Recommendations
 Gain access to NPS CMS (in the works for 6 years)
 Organize navigation by focus area: river conservation, trail
development, health initiatives
 Consider renaming “Pathways to Healthy Living” to
“Healthy Communities”
 Prominent links to RTCA on NPS.gov and partner websites
and social media
 Create health project profiles and health e-newsletter
 Twitter for individual projects, Facebook alumni page,
Vimeo and Flickr accounts
Health Pages
Pathways to Healthy
Living
Health Projects
Health
Projects
More About Health
Health
Resources
Publications/Online
Resources
Healthy
Communities
Healthy
Living
Federal and
Nonprofit Partners
Health
Partners
Health Home
NPS Health
Initiatives
ALBD Recommendations
 Connect sites with links to Vimeo, Flickr,
Wikipedia, HKHC on ALBD site
 Consolidate “what we do,” “our approach,” and
“about albd” tabs
 Create “our communities” tab to organize
community profiles and communities in action
 Hire intern or staff to update content (resources and
research)
 Develop e-newsletter and ALBD community toolkit
YMCA Recommendations
 Organize all health initiatives under “Healthy Living” and
list them in drop down menu
 Develop a “resources” tab with publications, toolkits, etc.
 Create Flickr, Vimeo, and Foursquare accounts
 Incorporate families’ voices/personal accounts in Healthy
Family Home web presence
 Develop social media presence and resources for Healthy
Family Home
 Create community profiles for Healthier Communities
initiative
Acknowledgments
 Corita Waters, Outdoor Recreation Planner, RTCA
 Mark Dessauer, Communications Director, ALBD
 Kurt Gelhausen, Director of Corporate Relations,
YMCA
THANKS!
Questions?