paul mallett believes the City of Launceston is the ideal place to promote healthier food options and daily physical activity. paul proposes that the City of Launceston become the leading regional community in the country via a campaign to support long term active lifestyles.

Communication and marketing could be framed around the notion of “the City that lost 500,000kg” and similar media “eye candy”, however the campaign could extend further into the scaling of current programs like Active Launceston, and Park Run, and the development of new “motivational” strategies and supports, such as:

• A City of Launceston website where community members sign up, track steps and weight loss, and access resources;
• Semi-regular sub-campaigns that use gamification apps to track steps and have teams across the city compete online for fun (ie apps that track by aggregate the total number of steps of participants and shows how many times we have walked around the country or to the moon and back; or software that pits two registered teams against each other to achieve a step goal first);
• Investment in walking track, bike trails, cycling infrastructure, public parks;
• Distribution of equipment like pedometers and sporting goods to promote physical movement;
• Partnerships with Department for Education schools within City boundaries to open up fields and courts for wider community use;
• Funding of place based activities to promote community engagement in walking groups, social and recreational participation, and group led activities;

Markers of success would be not limited to “weight loss”. Other indicators of program success would be an increase in health awareness (via survey), an increase in participation in activity (survey, step counts), and health data available at post code level regarding chronic conditions and hospital admissions.

With time the community of Launceston could take pride in leading the way in weight loss, maintenance of healthy weight, activity levels, and social participation.

Po: Could a series of Tasmanian cities might choose to join in and compete for “bragging rights” as to the most active city in Tasmania?

Po: Over time, could the City of Launceston seek to transform into a “blue zone” where an increasing number of the population live full lives beyond 100 years of age?

Po: Could the initiative extend (eventually) to promote better sleep, where community track and log sleeping based on smart watch functioning. Could better health, less accidents, and a better quality of life emerge from a an initiative  “that put the city to sleep”?

Inspiration

paul mallett trained as a Health and Physical Education teacher, and he has never lost his passion for healthy living and daily exercise.

In 2007, Mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett, launched the “This City is Going on a Diet” campaign. By 2012, the residents of the city had collectively lost 450,000 kilograms. The campaign had reshaped the city’s physical landscape to support healthier living.