On a sunny winter day, 22 MCOPP Leadership Team members gathered at Neighborhood House of Milwaukee to work with our program evaluation team from Transtria to participate in a Group Model Building (GMB) exercise. GMB is a community-participatory exercise used to understand social issues. In our case, the MCOPP team discussed ideas and strategies on the individual, community and community change levels related to healthy eating and active living.

After warming up the group, Transtria group leaders Allison and Tammy had the group draw individual "Behavior Over Time" graphs. These graphs depicted some aspect of healthy eating or active living from the perspective of past, present and future. For the next 20 minutes, participants drew graphs that ranged from the availability of junk food to funding opportunities. As the members finished up their drawings, they then explained what they thought occurred in community. Said one participant when describing kids walking to school "obviously my fear is that it will continue to go down [walking] and my hope is that people will eventually perceive the neighborhood to be safer and thus walking will increase".

Several graphs drawn by Milwaukee GMB participants.

After a short break, the team began making a Causal Loop Diagram from the 10 themes that emerged from the "Behavior Over Time" graphs. In this hour-long activity, the team made connections between the themes to identify feedback loops. The facilitators drew either positive (virtuous) lines or negative (vicious) lines to indicate causality or directionality. Two examples are: "healthy meals youth receive per day" leads to more "fruit and vegetable consumption". This is an example of a positive feedback loop - both moving in a positive direction. For the second example, increased "activity in the neighborhood" causes "obesity" to decrease. The team worked hard to make as many connections as possible. The resulting Causal Loop Diagram is shown below.

Causal Loop Diagram

In the end, there were a number of variables with five or more connections. These will become the focal areas for understanding the process of change within the community at this time. Those themes with the highest number of arrows included "availability of junk food" (shown below), "fruit and vegetable consumption", "education/awareness of healthy eating and active living", "obesity", "60 minutes of physical activity per day", "family involvement", "perceived neighborhood safety", "collaboration of partners, leaders, and residents", and "funding opportunities" 

Zooming in on one part of the Causal Loop Diagram--"Availability of Junk Food"

Exercises like the one just described only tell part of the story in any neighborhood. It is important to remember, childhood obesity does not have any one cause, and is a much more complex issue than only food and activity levels. To understand the issue, we need to work together at all levels to effectively bring about the change we seek. For more information on Group Model Building or to schedule a presentation on this process please contact David Nelson at [email protected].

Badgerland Striders 2012 Calendar of Youth Run/Walk Events

Click here for information about youth and family running and walking opportunities throughout 2012.

The Westlawn Partnership for a Healthier Environment is pleased to offer FREE Bicycle Tune-Ups for the Westlawn Community the following Fridays from 3-6pm: June 1, July 6, August 3, and September 7. Click here for more information.

Take Action Against Hunger in Our Community

Responding to Hunger: Creating Local Solutions

Sunday, June 3rd from 2-5pm at Marquette University.

Click here for more information.